Mitch Marsh stands down as Western Australia Sheffield Shield captain, Sam Whiteman to take full-time role

Mitch Marsh told teammates he was retiring from all forms of cricket before actually standing down from the Western Australian captaincy, new skipper Sam Whiteman has revealed.

Whiteman, who led the State to its past two Sheffield Shield titles, will take on the role full-time from this season.

Marsh has captained the State’s red-ball unit since 2017 but is now a national team regular in three formats and only likely to be available for the first three matches of this season.

Title-winning captain Ashton Turner will take back the reins in one-day cricket after missing large parts of last summer with a knee injury.

Chloe Piparo will lead the State’s women’s team again this season.

In a prank that had teammates taken aback, Marsh addressed the WA playing group and told them he was set to announce his retirement, before breaking out in laughter and revealing he was actually stepping down as skipper.

“He gave me a heads up before he did, but he stood up in front of the group and it was sort of like when Shaun (Marsh) retired, everyone in the changerooms,” Whiteman said.

“He said ‘come tomorrow I’m going to announce my retirement’ and it fell silent for a sec and then he cracked up with laughter and handed the reins over to me.”

The two-time shield-winning captain said coach Adam Voges — who he also played under — had helped shape his leadership style.

“It means a lot, it’s something for a long time I have really wanted to do,” Whiteman said.

“Probably from when I first started playing shield cricket, standing next to Adam Voges a lot and watching him captain.

“I’ve been a bit lucky in the past few years to step in a bit when Mitch has been away and it has been a real honour.

“I’m really proud to lead the group and can’t wait to see what this year brings.”

It has also been revealed Whiteman will miss the first two one-day matches of the season with a broken finger.

But the injury is not related to the finger damage that forced him to give up wicket-keeping in the early part of his career. Whiteman broke his finger fielding a ball during a training session.

His absence will leave a void alongside Cam Bancroft — who is set to arrive home to Perth from the UK this week — at the top of the order.

Sam Fanning, who played one 50-over match for the State last summer, scored 63 off 75 at the top of the order in a practice game late last week, while D’Arcy Short hit a half-century in the same game.

Teague Wyllie could also come into contention after a winter spent refining his limited-overs game during a club stint in England.

WA play New South Wales on September 22 and South Australia in a carnival-style opening to the season in Sydney.