Xavier Marshall

Xavier Melbourne Marshall (born 27 March 1986 in Jamaica) is a West Indies cricketer. He is a batsman and a talented fielder. However, in recent years he has failed to live up to his previous reputation as a promising young cricketer, and his progress in international cricket has since stagnated as a result of much inconsistency in batting scores.

Xavier Marshall was named the West Indian Youth Cricketer of the Year in June 2005.

Marshall represented the West Indies at the 2006 U-19 Cricket World Cup in Sri Lanka. His performance helped the West Indies progress to the semi-finals of the competition. He scored 106 from 133 balls as the West Indies beat South Africa by 34 runs. He played 11 youth One Day Internationals (ODI), scoring 554 runs at an average of 50.36, with a best score of 106.

On 14 January 2005, Marshall made his ODI debut. Batting at number four, he scored five runs from 10 balls against Australia; he was dismissed caught behind by Adam Gilchrist off the bowling of Brett Lee. He was also in the West Indies' ODI squad for the five-match series against South Africa.

To-date, he has played four Test matches and 10 One Day Internationals (ODI). He has recorded 2 Test 50s, both against Australia. The first was came on 31 May in Antigua, where he scored 53 before being out LBW to Michael Clarke. His second is his current highest test score of 85, scored at Barbados on 15 June, with the West Indies needing 475 runs to win. However, they lost by 87 runs. The One Day series against Australia started poorly for Marshall, as he was caught by Brad Haddin from Brett Lee for 6 runs. In the second ODI Marshall was removed for a first ball duck, caught behind by Luke Ronchi off Brett Lee's bowling.

On 22 August 2008, Marshall broke the record for most sixes scored in an ODI, previously shared by Sanath Jayasuria and Shahid Afridi. He managed to hit 12 sixes in a score of 157* from 118 balls against Canada as the West Indies won the match by 49 runs. This record stood until 11 April 2011, when Shane Watson hit 15 sixes against Bangladesh.

In September 2008, Marshall was training for the Stanford Super Series and was forced to withdraw from the team when it became public that he had tested positive in a pre-Series drug test. The West Indies Cricket Board did not announce what substance Marshall had tested positive, but they later announced that they would not be taking action against Marshall, because he was not participating in a West Indies uniform at the time.