Australia fast-bowler Mitchell Starc won his first Allan Border for his remarkable national team performances in 2021. The memento- regarded as the pinnacle of cricket achievements in the country- caps off what has otherwise been a tough year off the field for the 31-year-old Aussie pacer.
2021 was a tough year for Starc
Starc lost his father Paul at the start of 2021. The months that followed featured minimal cricket participation, thanks to a combination of tour cancellations and injury pull-outs, and allowed Starc to properly process his emotions. By the time he returned to feature in the 3-match ODI series against West Indies; a series that was notable for Australia fielding a second-string team- Starc was fresh with pace and burning passion.
His wicket-tally across formats from the year reads 43 scalps at an average of 24.4- 12 better of the second-highest on the list. While he had a relatively lukewarm WT20 campaign in UAE, picking up 9 wickets from 7 games, he and his team still managed to finish on top of the podium.
The crowning achievement of the year, however, was the recently concluded Ashes campaign back in home. Starc bowled with his characteristic fire and passion to pick up 19 wickets- including the scalp of Rory Burns in the very first ball of the series!
The performance served to reaffirm Starc’s reputation as one of Australia’s premier pacers; especially in the light of criticism made by former players like Shane Warne over his ability to pick up wickets. Over the past year-and-a-half, Starc’s lean outings in the series against India (11-wickets) and an unspectacular Sheffield Shield campaign (16 wickets @ 40+) validated a lot of Starc’s critics over his position in the team.
But while Starc put up a brave face on the cricket field and focussed on what he does best; inside, he was struggling to deal with the negative attention. It came to a point where he didn’t even want to play cricket anymore.
“Didn’t want to play cricket at times”- Mitchell Starc
“The last two years, as life is at the moment, there’s a lot of ups and downs,” Starc told over on a conference on Saturday. You find ways to adapt and what not, but it’s a reflection of the support base I have had throughout those two years as well. There’s certainly been times when I haven’t played my best cricket or certainly times over those two years where I didn’t want to play any cricket.”
During these tough times, Starc had the support of his wife, women-cricketer Alyssa Healy, and his teammates; who helped him not fret over the bad stuff on social media. And Starc couldn’t be thankful enough to have them around.
“I’ve got a wife that plays at the highest level and a couple of my closest mates who play International cricket, so I’ve got a pretty good sounding board in that regard. A lot of respective opinions in our change room as well. They’re the people I go out and play cricket with and they’re the opinions I value most.”
Finally, Starc had a few words of acknowledgement for his backroom and management staff. In fact, their positivity even rubbed off in his batting skills, which could be a reason why he averaged 40 in the recent Ashes.
“It goes back to the work you do behind the scenes, and the work you put in with S&Cs and time spent with physios and what not. A huge thanks to the support staff, particularly Australian Men’s physio David Beakley to keep me on the park for five Test matches and keep me on the park for five. Nice little added bonus to get through five Test matches,” he concluded.
