How Grace Harris harnessed her time in the international wilderness and forced her way back onto the Aussie team
After more than five years in the international wilderness, Grace Harris was making the most of her roaring domestic cricket career. Her unwaveringly positive attitude paid dividends, writes LACHLAN McKIRDY.
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Grace Harris had a long five-and-a-half years between Australian caps.
After her first taste of international cricket in 2015 and a handful of ODIs in 2016, she fell off the radar and became content with her state cricket set-up in Queensland.
For years she was one of the most exciting domestic cricketers in Australia.
“I kind of benched any ideas or ambitions to play cricket for Australia at that stage,” Harris tells CODE Sports.
“I was just so happy and grateful for the domestic set up that I was involved in.”
Debuting for Australia at the twilight of the non-professional era, it’s a far cry from the six-figure paydays she and the majority of the national team earned in the recent WPL auction.
“My first experience with the Australian team wasn’t as great as what I thought it would be for my life,” Harris says.
“I took leave without pay, I was working full-time when I first got picked and we weren’t really paid that well back then.
“Back when I first started, I was much the same but probably unsure of what was required of me. So if I was challenging some ideas and roles on how we should play the game, it probably wasn’t well received at that time, it was like, ‘Nah, know your place’.
“So it was more stressful at times playing cricket for Australia than it was not playing cricket for Australia.”
It’s a testament to the evolution of this Australian team environment that Harris’ attitude has changed completely.
A weight of runs at the domestic level she so loves forced selectors to bring her back into the fold.
She was in the stands with more than 86,000 others at the MCG for the 2020 T20 World Cup final, dreaming of what it would be like to be out there lifting the trophy and dancing with Katy Perry.
Now she’ll get a chance to replicate that feeling as a key cog in the Australian middle order when they come play in the T20 World Cup final this Sunday.
“Now that I’m back in, hooley dooley, I love it, it’s the greatest set-up,” she says.
“Now the challenge is almost, ‘No Grace, think bigger’. That’s the direction it’s headed and the way it’s run is so much better and more organised. It’s chalk and cheese really and the professionalism changed a lot with that.”
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With a smile on her face, Harris tells the story of her formative years in cricket outside of the professional model.
“I remember we were training some nights with one generator light and you were getting petrol fumes,” she recalls. “If they came around the wicket you can see it, if they come over, you can’t.
“You’d play on wickets the men had trained on for the whole week and they’d start shooting through and knocking your hip off.”
It’s why she holds slight frustrations at the next generation of cricketers who have grown up with being full-time athletes as a clear goal. Her message: don’t forget those who came before.
“It grinds my gears sometimes hearing some of the younger ones whinge about some of the circumstances that we’re in now, you know, running drinks or something,” she says.
“I remember trips and we ran drinks and we would not even be paid. You weren’t even looked after. You’d have to carry your bags yourself and organise some trips to and from the ground.”
To think of how far she has come is a shock to Harris considering cricket was the furthest thing from her mind for most of her childhood.
She and her sister, Laura, grew up in a passionate Queensland rugby league family. But with their mum reluctant to let them get involved in contact sports, football became their passion.
It just so happened the football club they played for turned into a cricket club in the summer. A parental ploy to stop the pair of them from playing PlayStation all holidays turned into the start of incredible careers.
“It was kind of fun,” Harris says. “I’d get an esky set up at fine leg and every second over I got drinks and snacks and I was good.
“Growing up, cricket was never going to be an option, we never thought it would be this big.”
Now, both Grace and Laura are set to play in the inaugural edition of the WPL, picked up by the UP Warriorz and Delhi Capitals respectively for a combined sum of more than $AUD 200,000.
After playing in front of 45,000 – and starring with the bat – in Australia’s recent T20 tour of India, Grace knows that the tournament has the potential to be something special. And she’s already licking her lips at the chance of getting to bowl to her sister on the big stage.
“I’d come up with something different – it’d be a bouncer or a quick arm ball yorker,” she says. “Better not give away all my secrets because that’s how I’ll get her out.
“There’s no point chatting in the field [in India] because the buzz is already out there in the stands, and they go fairly quiet when you‘re on top mind you.
“In domestic leagues, they cheer for both teams, so maybe I’ll actually get cheers when I hit a six and not just a quiet crowd.
“At the moment, I just kind of am sitting back and just seeing like, if it is well run and if it‘s well done, it’ll be life-changing for women’s cricket.”
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For now, attention turns back to the World Cup. And the group stage has already shown the important role Harris is to play if the Aussies want to make it a three-peat.
In the clash against Sri Lanka, their star batter Chamari Athapaththu looked primed for a dominant innings. That was until Harris took a diving catch at mid-on to dismiss her.
Captain Meg Lanning knew from that moment she was on-form and decided to throw her the ball. She took the next two wickets and completely turned the game in Australia’s favour.
“I think the girls were having a go at her, there may have been a little bit of mayo on the catch,” said coach Shelley Nitschke.
“But that’s the type of player she is. She does things like that, she has an X-factor and loves being involved and having an impact on the game, and everyone lifts with her.
“She plays a big part in driving that energy out there and I think people feed off it.”
And there’s no danger of the occasion overawing her. Her crucial innings in the Commonwealth Games when Australia was in trouble in their opening match against India is a perfect example of how much she wants to be involved.
Her mindset in that moment would calm even the most nervous teammate: Have fun because there are a lot worse places they could be.
“In eight games I had been playing as a specialist fielder,” she remembers. “And I know we were 4-30 or something but I was like, ‘Yes, I actually get to bat today’.
“I’d love to get the opportunity to perform more in a World Cup.
“But don’t get me wrong, it’s fun to sit and watch Meg and Moons and Midge (Alyssa Healy) and Pez (Ellyse Perry) and T-Mac (Tahlia McGrath) and Ash (Gardner). Can just watch them bomb sixes and knock over totals.
“If I go well, then so be it. How good’s that? If I bomb out, I guess the others bombed out too. Joining the club.
“As long as it’s not silly or tactically wrong, then I’ll take it. It’s worth the risk.
“It’s only cricket, right? What’s it matter?”
Originally published as How Grace Harris harnessed her time in the international wilderness and forced her way back onto the Aussie team
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