Cricket news: Paceman Mitchell Starc reveals pain of playing on last summer while dad was ill

Australian Test bowler Mitchell Starc reveals how tough last summer was fighting for form in a Covid bubble when all he wanted to be with was his sick father.

It was always going to be the toughest challenge of his career.

Mitchell Starc wanted to be with his dad, but his dad just wanted him to play cricket.

And bubble life decreed it had to be one or the other.

Starc seems an all too convenient scapegoat for criticism in Australian cricket, but in his most despairing hour the fast bowler showed his true character.

Paul Starc was diagnosed with aggressive cancer at the onset of the summer, and sadly lost his battle by the season’s end.

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Australian cricketer Mitchel Starc with his father Paul, who lost his battle with cancer last summer.

In the weeks between, his shattered son bravely fulfilled his father’s last wish which was for him to get on the road and continue to do his dad proud as a Test cricketer for Australia.

Locked in a bio-bubble for the best part of eight weeks unable to visit his father, an emotional Starc still struggles to put into words the pain he hid last summer.

“Yeah, it wasn’t much fun,” Starc manages between long pauses.

“It was tough … But everyone is going through their own things so you push on.”

Paul was Mitchell’s most significant cricketing influence, and his loss was profound.

“Yeah, he was my first coach, so he’s a huge part of my career,” Starc says.

“And he’s probably the reason why I played any cricket last summer to be fair. It was a tough last summer …”

Starc was harshly singled out for criticism after Australia’s series loss to India and is now locked in a battle with Jhye Richardson to hold his place for the Ashes.

Yet had catches been taken off his bowling in Sydney, the ending almost certainly looks entirely different.

Inside the dressing room Starc lost no admirers; carrying himself with a silent courage only those who know him best could fully appreciate.

“I really admired Mitchy. I’m really proud of how he played last summer,” says Pat Cummins.

“To be able to wake up each morning, front up, do it with a smile on his face and lace up his boots and bowl his heart out time and time again, was just an incredible effort and made so many people around him really proud and strong.”

Wife Alyssa Healy opened up to Channel 7 about how she felt helpless watching her husband fighting a natural urge to want to be with his father, only to have his place in the bowling attack called into question as he put his heart and soul on the line.

“Mitch copped a lot of flak for bowling the way he did last summer, but for those people who were laying into him, they had no concept of what was going on,” Healy says.

“Mitch didn’t want to be there playing cricket. He wanted to be sitting next to his dad and spending the last three months he could possibly have with his dad. And Paul didn’t want that.

“He wanted him to go out there, play for Australia and wear his baggy green with pride. It was tough.”

Starc copped some heat last summer for his form but there was a lot of stuff going on in the background.

Healy beautifully articulates the relationship between Paul and Mitchell.

“Paul was such a big supporter of all his kids, but he loved the fact that Mitch played cricket for Australia,” she says.

“He was always his biggest supporter and the only reason Mitch played the cricket he did last summer is because Paul wanted him to. He wouldn’t let him sit at home and feel sorry for his dad that he was going through something as horrible as what he did.

“He wanted him to go out there and play cricket.

“To have to deal with what was going on behind the scenes and play Test cricket on the biggest arena is not easy.”

A week and a half out from the first Ashes Test against England, Starc is fighting to hold in-form tearaway Jhye Richardson at bay.

Selectors are flirting with reintroducing the rotation policy last used for the 2019 Ashes in England in a bid to avoid burning out their prized quicks over the course of five Tests.

There is logic in the thinking, but also lessons from the perils of being too cute — with the decision to bench Starc for critical losses at Leeds and The Oval arguably costing Australia an Ashes series win on UK soil that was there for the taking.

Starc finds himself in a battle to keep Jhye Richardson from claiming his Test spot.

“Playing cricket in Australia is very different to playing in England. Conditions tend to be harder on the bodies, with the harder and flatter wickets,” Starc says. “I think if your (selectors’) message is consistent, obviously it’s out of players’ hands. We don’t pick the team.”

Starc’s figures in the World Cup final (0-60) looked ugly, but were once again blotted by a dropped catch in the deep which should have had New Zealand’s Kane Williamson safely back in the dugout before the Black Caps danger man made the left-armer pay with a blistering onslaught.

Of course all bowlers have catches dropped, but Starc’s poor fortune is a gentle reminder he is a proven wicket-taking strike weapon who should not be so closely judged in the prism of the ultra-consistent Cummins and Josh Hazlewood alongside him.

“If we’d held onto his catches, he’s averaging in the 20s last summer. You can read into it however you want, but there’s no question marks at all over Mitchy’s ability to be a matchwinner,” Cummins says.

Starc now gets the opportunity to go out and enjoy playing for Australia again.

“Mitch is looking great, he’s feeling fresh. Over at the World especially in the nets he was bowling fast and swinging the ball. He was fantastic for us in winning the Ashes here a few years ago in 2017-18 so I’m expecting a big summer from Mitchy.”

Healy too senses her husband can stride to the top of his mark with a new freedom this summer.

“Last summer was tough but I guess it makes me really excited for this summer,” she says.

“For Mitch in particular to get back to his best knowing the weight of all that (his father’s illness), it’s not necessarily gone, but it’s taken a bit off his shoulders.

“He can go out there and enjoy cricket and enjoy playing for Australia again.

“He deserves it. He gives up a lot for me, and I give up a lot for him but I think he gives up way more for me and I’m eternally grateful and I just want to see him succeed.”

Originally published as Cricket news: Paceman Mitchell Starc reveals pain of playing on last summer while dad was ill