Mitchell Starc can’t stop fidgeting with his baggy green cap. “Sorry,” he says, breaking off his answer to run his finger under the rim and then tug again at the brim. It is a replica of the one awarded to every Australian player when they make their debut. The marketing team wanted him to put it on for a photoshoot, and Starc just doesn’t feel comfortable. “This one feels so wrong.” Like most Australian players, Starc has only ever had one of them. His is “a lot older, and a lot smellier”. He’s had it for 13 years, and after all that time any other just doesn’t sit quite right.
Starc, wickedly fast and armed with a yorker that’s paid for at least a couple of dozen podiatrists to buy new kitchens, has proved himself one of the great white-ball bowlers. He has been the world No 1 in 50-over cricket for long stretches of the past decade, and was the leading wicket-taker in both of the past two one-day World Cups. Given all that he could, and should, be one of the richer cricketers on the circuit. Except he hasn’t played a single game of franchise cricket, in the Indian Premier League, the Big Bash, or any other league, in more than eight years.
It has not been because of injuries, or for want of offers – “I’ve had some pretty good ones”. It’s just that when it came down to it, he didn’t want to. Stories about how he’s skipped another IPL auction are a clickbait staple. “Being able to spend time with my family is part of it,” Starc says. His wife, the new Australia women’s captain, Alyssa Healy, has her own playing schedule, and chances for them to both be home together are pretty rare. “But it is also about getting myself in a position where I can play my best cricket for Australia. I’d certainly love to play in the IPL again, but my goal for a long time has been to be at my best for Australia, no matter the format.”
Starc played two seasons with the Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2014 and 2015. “I enjoyed it, likewise I enjoyed my time at Yorkshire 10 years ago, but Australia will always sit at the top.” Going by the prices some of his teammates fetch, he would likely be around $10m (£8m) richer if he’d gone the other way. “I don’t regret any of it, money will come and go but I’m very grateful for the opportunities I’ve had. Over a hundred years of Test cricket and there’s been less than 500 men who have played it for Australia, that in itself makes it very special to be a part of it.”
Starc has a handsome contract with Cricket Australia, but still he is obviously not in cricket just for the money. There’s more to it than that. “There’s nothing I love more in cricket than to sit back with my teammates at the end of a Test win and reflect on the success we’ve had that week. To be able to pull on the baggy green with a lot of my close mates, guys I’ve grown up in the game with. I mean, franchise cricket is great, but you can be bought or sold or traded in 12 months, whereas this is an opportunity that I’ve been fortunate enough to have over 10 years now.”
It is, Starc admits, “an interesting moment” for international cricket, and especially the Test game. “There’s more and more franchise cricket, and more and more talk about 12-month franchise contracts, where it would potentially be like football, where you have an international window, or you need clearance from your club to go and play international sport. The traditionalist in me still hopes there is a generation of boys and girls who want to represent their country in Test cricket. But the easy money is in franchise cricket, it’s the fast track to notoriety.”
For the next eight weeks, at least, the sport will run to a slower tempo and there will be something more than money at stake. Australia beat India in the World Test Championship final at the Oval and now go straight into the Ashes. For Starc, and the generation of players he has grown up with, it is a chance to prove themselves the best team in the world, and win something they, and everyone who follows the sport, will remember forever, by becoming the first Australian side to win a series in England in more than 20 years.
“We haven’t used the word ‘legacy’, but we’re an experienced group, have been together for a fair bit of time, had a good bit of success, and this is definitely something we’d love to achieve. Especially having missed out here last time [in 2019] when we drew that series. We want to go one step further, to win an Ashes in England would be a major milestone.” For Starc personally, he wants to put right his experiences here in 2019, when he played only one Test. Australia’s plan that year was all about being economical, and Starc says he got too caught up in trying to change the way he bowls.
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“Four years down the track I’ve played a bit more cricket, and have a different mindset about how I’d like to go about it, and play to my strengths rather than change the way I go about to fit into an attack.”
Of course, England are playing a very different kind of cricket this time, too. “The way England have gone about their cricket in the last 12 months, it’s not a fluke. They’ve done it against different teams in different conditions. They’re challenging the norms of Test cricket, certainly in the pace of play.” He still wonders whether they will be able to stick to it. “For all the hype from outside, I still think it’s going to be based on conditions. If we have traditional English pitches, which nip around, and if the overhead conditions play a part, will they still be so aggressive with the Ashes on the line? The way they’re talking suggests yes, but whether we see it in practice will be another thing.”
And besides, batting that way against everyone else is one thing, but surely he believes that doing it against him, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood is a different business? Starc’s grin says more than his answer. “I guess we’ll find out over the next six weeks.”
