Australian left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe, speaking on The Grade Cricketer podcast, spoke of the dramatic happenings at a meeting with the team management at New South Wales, when he was informed about his axing from the state team.
A “disappointed” O’Keefe retired from first-class cricket in April, after being informed that he wouldn’t be offered a contract to feature in the next season of Sheffield Shield.
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The 35-year-old spinner, who represented the state for almost 15 years, claimed 16 wickets from five Shield games in 2019/20, the best by a spinner in the competition, but still found himself exiting the team rather unceremoniously.
“It’s funny,” he said. “The whole process was very new to me, at least I can go in and sign my own contract, because you know, [I’d] taken 30 wickets at 29, no one else in the whole country’s doing it. But it was a text message I got, and these are the four names that are going to be included in your contract meeting – the CEO, head selector, head of cricket, and the coach — you’re generally not going to be in for a good thing.
“And they don’t disguise it too well, cricket in NSW, because they put people who are generally close, or quite close to losing a contract on the same day, they have the meeting on the same day, so word gets out. I think in my case it was May 2, I was on there with about three or four other people who were about to lose their job. So, the writing on the wall.
“One thing in effect that I did get, from the head selector, that at the end of it he really looked forward to chatting to me. And I think there was some moment during the meeting, halfway through, that I stood up and said – ‘What bleeping part of this are you really enjoying?’ So, yeah, it was a sad moment to have but I did end up getting, you know, I was dragged out by security, kicking and screaming, saying that I didn’t really want to leave, but obviously, I left the bigger man and I was well respected and very diplomatic.”
O’Keefe, who represented Australia in nine Tests and seven T20Is between 2010 and 2017, is expected to still feature in the Big Bash, but is slowly getting accustomed to his red-ball retirement.
“It was a tough situation to be in,” O’Keefe said, “but I moved on, things have moved on, my Xbox is moving on, I have started a wine journal, I bought a wine rack, I am handling it as any good retired cricketer would and chatting to you guys, more importantly.”
