SCG curator Adam Lewis saw first-hand the work ethic that propelled Sam Konstas to a baggy green

SCG curator Adam Lewis has vivid memories of Sam Konstas hitting balls everyday at the oval they both worked at - Lewis as groundsman and Konstas as the nine-year-old batting machine with a baggy green dream.

Long before Sam Konstas became the youngest player at the SCG in over 100 years, he was the boy who never left the Hurstville Oval nets.

SCG curator Adam Lewis, formerly the groundsman at Hurstville, the home of St George cricket in Sydney’s south, has vivid memories of Konstas and the feverish work ethic that has taken him all the way from nine-year-old suburban workhorse to 19-year-old Test star.

Konstas grew up on the same street as Hurstville Oval and would walk across the road to the nets every day with his father, Jim.

While the kid hit balls, Lewis would be on the other side of the velodrome track that surrounds the oval rolling the pitch. On Friday the SCG curator will have a similar vantage point, only it will be Konstas batting out in the middle of Sydney’s field of dreams.

“It was constant. I’m talking every day,” Lewis told this masthead.

“I remember his dad throwing balls to him every day in the outside nets and I actually asked him the other day when he was playing Shield for NSW at the SCG – and he remembered me.

Sam Konstas celebrates scoring a century for St George at Hurstville Oval in 2022. Picture: Jeremy Ng/News Corp Australia

“We never really spoke, but he put in a lot of effort when he was younger.

“You knew if he was going to make it, he had definitely put the effort in. It’s great to see.”

Another great of St George cricket, Kerry O’Keeffe, who journeyed the same path from Hurstville Oval to the heights of playing for Australia, and now one of the game’s most astute analysts, has been watching Konstas bat since he was 15.

There is something unique about local heroes in Australian sport, and Konstas’ name has been the name on the lips of junior cricket coaches and observers for nearly a decade.

Konstas’ mentor Shane Watson, who took his protégé from St George down King Georges Road and across the Tom Uglys Bridge to join his old club Sutherland, said he can attest his ascension to opening the batting for Australia has not happened overnight or by accident.

“It’s certainly been an incredible week for Sam, for sure. It’s been something that he only ever dreamed of,” Watson said speaking on the ICC’s Champions Trophy tour.

“He was desperate to be able to get there and in his own mind, he’d set the course of where he wanted to get to.

“There’s no secret for me the reason why he’s been able to perform like he has at such a young age. He’s been so diligent with his technical development, with his mental development.

“It doesn’t come about without the incredible hard work and the disciplined work that he’s done. He’s shut out all distractions around him for a long period of time with the single focus on being the best cricketer that he possibly can be.”

Watson admits the Konstas he knows is quiet and reserved and not the extroverted showman that was relishing in pumping up the massive MCG crowd on his Boxing Day debut.

Sam Konstas is embracing the limelight. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

After famously ramp shotting Jasprit Bumrah, Watson said Konstas’ biggest challenge will come now with India more prepared for his bag of tricks.

“Look it’s going to be a different challenge for him now, because he’s shown what his plan B is,” Watson said.

“We already saw in that second innings the field positions certainly changed. So it’s going to be a good test of his evolution.

“To be able to continue to work through how he can take the game on against the best bowlers in the world.

“But he’s certainly got all the gears and all the skills to be able to make those adjustments quickly.”

Originally published as SCG curator Adam Lewis saw first-hand the work ethic that propelled Sam Konstas to a baggy green