DIGITAL ISSUE
How Mitchell Starc learnt to keep his eyes on the ball
The left-arm quick has endured his fair share of bouquets and brickbats throughout his career. He still does. The difference is that nowadays he doesn’t pay attention to either of them
BY BEN JHOTY
MITCHELL STARC IS towering above me on a patch of grass between two grandstands at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane. There is nowhere for the tall left-arm quick to sit, so we do our interview standing. I remind Starc that I’d interviewed him for Men’s Health back in 2017.
He apologises for not recalling what we talked about, then gives me a wry grin. “Something about cricket, right.” I smile back. “I think it was cricket,” I say, as deadpan as I can.
I actually do recall some of the specifics of our conversation back then. I’d asked Starc about criticism from the late, great Shane Warne, who’d questioned the fast bowler’s mental toughness in the press. At the time, Starc’s face had betrayed hints of annoyance, as he told me that although Warne was an all-time great, he wasn’t a fast bowler and therefore wasn’t particularly well placed to comment.
As I chat to Starc today, I get the feeling that these days he’d let such criticism go through to the keeper – pun intended.
“To be perfectly honest, the last seven years, I don’t really care what other people think,” he says matter-of-factly.
Why not, I venture. “I’m older,” says Starc. “I’ve just learned to let things go. People can say what they want. It doesn’t bother me. As long as I’ve had honest conversations with people in the change room, with people I trust, people I know, family, that’s what matters to me. If I’m performing my role for the team and playing my part, they’re the things that are important to me with my cricket.”
How did he achieve this Zen-like mindset, you may be wondering. For one, Starc got off social media. That helped. Experience too, played its part. “I’d like to think I’ve had the ability to adapt to and learn about myself, about how to manage things and compartmentalise,” he says. “I think I’d say I’m in a pretty level place in terms of how I am on and off the field and hopefully that’s reflected in my cricket.”
Time spent in the public eye has also taught Starc a valuable lesson: “you’re never as good or as bad as you or other people think”.
I nod, acknowledging an obvious though often unappreciated truth. “I think that’s helped me stay pretty level,” he adds.
Having a wife, in Australian captain Alyssa Healy, who understands what it’s like to play for your country and can empathise with the challenges that sometimes brings, is useful, he says. “Having Alyssa go through a lot of similar things and the understanding she has helps,” he says. “I can certainly vent to her and she to me, but once we’re back on the cricket field or back in our teams, it’s business as usual.”
For Starc, that business is taking wickets. Lots of them. It’s possible Starc’s rise from a so-called white-ball specialist to a man with 402 Test wickets to his name – fourth all time among Australian bowlers – might have played a part in his indifference to the opinions of past players and pundits. Success tends to do that.
One thing Starc has enjoyed since we last spoke is being an integral part of one of the most formidable bowling units in world cricket, alongside fellow quicks, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood – with cameos from Scott Boland – and the GOAT Nathan Lyon adding balance with his off-spin – or if this were a band, playing the drums in the Ringo role.
As Starc notes, each has a different style, helping the unit as a whole. “If I look at us individually, Josh, Pat, Scotty and I, we all do things very differently, which I think, in turn, makes us very good together,” he says. “I’ve probably been one that bowls a little bit fuller. I’ve always had a little bit more air speed, always been a little less consistent. So, I’ve always probably had a higher economy [rate], but I think my strike rate’s been lower as well. But the three of us have been quite successful and I think that’s because we do things differently. I wouldn’t change it.”
Among Starc’s haul of wickets, a growing number have been taken with the pink ball, earning him the catchy nickname, at least in some circles, as ‘the magenta master’.
The sobriquet is news to Starc – he’s off social, remember. I wonder what he thinks of it.
“I’ve never heard that before, it’s good,” he says of the nickname. “I think that the pink ball reacts a bit more like a white ball, so whether that’s conducive to bowling fuller or not, who knows? I still don’t know why it does what it does, and Steve Smith still says it’s a lottery as a batter because the ball can all of a sudden start to do things.”
Yet while he’s had success with the pink ball and is surely looking forward to this summer’s pink-ball Test at the Gabba, Starc remains a red-ball advocate. “I think I’ve always been a bit of a critic of the pink ball,” he says. “I think there’s a place for it, but I don’t think it should be flooding Test cricket. I’m still a traditionalist, still love the red ball game. It [the pink-ball Test] is always exciting, but red-ball cricket is still where it’s at.”
As he prepares to leave, I have to ask Starc something, though, I’m already pretty sure I know what the answer will be. Does he bristle that he’s been pigeon-holed, once again, by the colour of the ball he bowls with. He breaks into a grin as he shrugs in response. Mitchell Starc couldn’t care less.
Rapid Fire with Mitchell Starc
Favourite gym exercise?
Cleans have been one that’s stuck around in my program for over 10 years, either from the blocks or the floor
Sets and reps?
5 x 3
Weight?
90 to 95 kg from the floor. 100 to 105 kg from the blocks
Least favourite?
Chin-ups. I’m not very big up top.
Reps?
6
Cheat meal?
Chocolate or ice cream
Workout song?
I built a gym at home so I can listen to my own music. Country is where I’m at right now.
Favourite artist?
Luke Combs
Proudest Achievement?
Debut Test match
Best part of being a fast bowler is . . .
Not heaps. Being able to bowl fast and intimidate
Hardest part?
Having to bowl fast and back up
The Ashes is . . .
History
Funniest teammate?
You laugh most with Mitch Marsh and laugh most at Nathan Lyon
Who would play you in a movie about yourself?
Jake Gyllenhaal
Biggest strength?
Being able to let things go
Weakness?
Overthinking
Hero?
Steve Waugh
Motto?
You’re never as good or bad as people think you are
