For Mitchell Starc, arguably the most devastating fast bowler in ODI history, one of his trademark, all-timer World Cup campaigns would be a fitting send-off, writes Geoff Lemon. This article first appeared in issue 71 of Wisden Cricket Monthly, a World Cup special.
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When it comes to examining cultural gulfs between British and Australians, much airtime goes to singing in stadiums. One group does it, one does not; perhaps it tells us a little about the Australian male reticence to try things for fear of mockery, perhaps a little about the bravado of British laddery. While all for cultural expression, it must be said there is an unwarranted level of self-congratulation for the feat of squashing a rhyming couplet about a third-tier footballer’s drink-driving charge into the approximate shape of an Elton John tune. But now and then you nod at a decent line, and a few Australians even venture into the choppy waters of verse.
A few years back this was a group of the ever-multiplying Richie Benaud impersonators, their plastic silver wigs itching in the heat. Their simple construction came during Christmas season when endless carols had by then seeped into the core of our collective bones. “Hark, the herald angels sing,” they harked. “Mitchell Starc, the new-ball king.”
He is. The rage at the moment is Pakistan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi. Tall, lithe, lean, Shaheen flows to the crease, bowls left-arm over the wicket at searing velocity, bends the ball back into right-handers. Pitched full, gleaming under lights, a new white Kookaburra ball swerves in the air before smashing into pads or stumps. His knack is doing this in the first over of a match, often first ball. Plenty of times a second wicket follows moments later.
Lastly, consider that Starc’s economy rate at 5.11 is higher than anyone bar Lasith Malinga. Square that with the fact that only Allan Donald, Saqlain Mushtaq and Glenn McGrath have a (marginally) better average than Starc’s 22.09. The kind of bowler who goes for plenty on a bad day, he has been far more expensive than the best in the game but has swept up enough wickets to offset that entirely. There is a strong case that Starc is the most damaging one-day bowler to ever play.
So here he is, aged 33 but still the same leanness, same lope, much the same pace, still bowling like a rubber band snapping back into place. His Test bowling is better than ever, even if one-dayers are few. It is strange that there isn’t more buzz about him. Perhaps audiences now see him as part of the furniture, just as long-term players find him less of a surprise to face. But still, he is heading to a third and probably last one-day World Cup, the stage where he has most excelled. It would slot satisfyingly into place if he could do so one more time.
This article first appeared in issue 71 of Wisden Cricket Monthly, a World Cup special.
