The Soda Room podcast: Cricket star Travis Head on becoming a father, his Test debut and Phil Hughes
SA cricket star Travis Head opens up on becoming a father and how Phil Hughes changed his life in a new podcast with Mark Soderstrom.
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Australian cricket star Travis Head and his fiancee Jessica Davies have welcomed their baby daughter Milla into the world.
Head, 28, opted out of the national team’s one-day international series in northern Queensland to be at home for the birth of their first child.
The dashing left-handed batsmen said his first week as a father had been “amazing”.
“The nine months (of the pregnancy) raced but the last week felt like it went for a year – we were very eager to meet her,” Head told interviewer Mark Soderstrom in his podcast The Soda Room.
“Jess did a wonderful job and yes, we’re over the moon. She’s lovely.”
Head and Davies discovered they were pregnant the day he arrived home after starring in Australia’s Fifth Test Ashes win over England in Tasmania in January and Milla was born in Adelaide’s Ashford Hospital on September 2.
“I think we were both in awe when it actually happened that we actually created something so special and so good,” Head said. “Yeah, looking forward to that journey now … it’s amazing.”
Head also speaks about his relationship with former Australian batting star Phillip Hughes, who died after being hit in the neck by a bouncer while playing for SA in a Sheffield Shield match in Sydney in 2014.
Hughes had taken the young Head under his wing after shifting to SA in 2012 and the pair, both dashing left-hand batsmen, had formed a close bond.
“The relationship grew and grew and grew and I would stop in at his place (in O’Connell St, North Adelaide) and stay every now and again when I didn’t want to go home (to Gawler),” Head said.
“So we got really close and he was great for my game as well.”
Head said Hughes had a huge affect on the SA team and he still thinks “a lot” about his mate and the tragic incident that caused his death.
“It’s tough,” he said. “Time has flown … it’s still difficult. It still goes through your mind every now and then.
“I guess when they (opponents) are bowling fast, if those things do come into your head, when it (the ball) is released you forget about them and get on with it.
“But having seen it and being there in person … it’s still there. There’s battles. The scars are there, definitely.”
Head also opens up being hit by a car outside the Old Lion Hotel in North Adelaide when he was 19 as he and some SA Redbacks teammates were celebrating a Sheffield Shield win over rivals Victoria.
TRAVIS HEAD SPEAKS TO MARK SODERSTROM IN THE SODA ROOM
The Soda Room is presented in collaboration with the Sunday Mail.
Below is an edited transcript of the podcast – listen in full in the player above.
MS: Travis Head, welcome. The first thing I want to say is congratulations on becoming a dad.
TH: Yep. One week. Little Milla Paige came last Friday morning,
MS: Tell us how you feel now? As a dad? Because you’re a young dad, at 28.
TH: Amazing. It’s been a roller coaster ride. We found out the day I got home from the Ashes. And that feels like an eternity ago. The nine months raced, and then the last week felt like it went for a year so we were very eager to meet her and Jess did a wonderful job, my partner and yes, we’re over the moon. She’s lovely.
MS: So Jess is all good. Milla’s all good?
TH: Everyone’s good at the moment, with a few sleepless nights. Yes. We’re taking it day by day and rolling with the punches at the moment. We’re sort of trading on and off hours at the moment. It’s good fun.
MS: Tell me the moment that you see the baby. I’ve got three kids, and when it happens you just go no way. Because it feels like it’s the most unnatural natural thing in the world when a baby comes out.
TH: I think we were both in awe. I think we’re both naive about what the whole situation is going to be and we’re very calm – we’re both pretty relaxed people … I think we’re both just in awe when it actually happened that we actually created something so special and so good.
And yeah, looking forward to that journey now. It’s amazing.
MS: Do you feel different? I know. It’s only six days but do you look at the world differently?
TH: You see it and you’re just amazed by it. But I think I think you just get into little habits like the way you drive whether it just be how you concentrate.
I think the big thing for me is it’s like you’re protecting her (something) as simple as driving, you make sure that you’re super cautious and … you wouldn’t even pull out on the road if there’s a car like, 100 metres up the road.
MS: Besides the sleep, what’s been the one change you’ve noticed now in six days?
TH: I think just being able to be on the go like, and you’ve got something else to look after. Like I’ve got her to look after … and Jessica. I’ve realised how much she went through over the last week, so it gives me a great appreciation.
I think being around and being at home and being hospital for five or six days. So as much as for our relationship as well, I think it’s another step. It’s a great chapter for us. And we’ve been beautiful together.
MS: Tell us about the Test debut. When you get your first baggy green. The Baggy Green is probably the most important, most significant piece of Australian sporting kit you can get, I reckon?
TH: Yeah, that’s the pinnacle. And I hope that stays the same. It’s something that I’ve worked extremely hard for. And then yeah, and to get there now and to do it 27 times, it doesn’t lose any feeling or sense of how special it is.
Every time I go out to play, I just try to soak in as much of the experience as possible, because it might not happen a week later, you might not get that chance again, you might not be able to walk out on Boxing Day. Might not be able to walk out at Adelaide Oval again, who knows what that journey is going to …. it could be for 10 more years, it could be for two more tests, or one test it could be no more tests.
So trying not to lose what that feels like is important to me.
MS: Just with that, you figure realistically, there’s 12 blokes in Australia at any one time. Of the 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of people who want to play Test cricket, it doesn’t get lost on you, or any of the boys does it that there’s only 12 of you at any one time.
TH: No, I think it doesn’t get lost but you can get caught up I think. You can lose sense, sometimes.
And that’s normal. I think that’s normal for anybody to be when you are so entrenched in a bubble and you can lose sight of things and what and that’s why home is important to me.
That’s why Adelaide is important to me. It’s why friends is grounding for me. And I’ve learned that over the years, there’s been moments where I’ve been dragged into it and you can get caught up in the bright lights and I’ve had some really close people able to pull me in line over the years and just remind me of that which has been a really good eye opener.
We’ve got to remember that we lived a very, very privileged life, there’s not a lot of people that are able to do what we’re able to do. So reminding me to be myself, to be the kid from Craigmore and Gawler … and not get caught away in bright lights (is very important).
MS: Some amazing things have happened to you off the field. So when you’re 19, you get hit by a car in front of the Lion Hotel. Now you’ve only had a couple of drinks celebrating a victory, so you weren’t drunk walking in the middle of the road or anything like that. But the bike driving the car was. You got pretty much smacked by the car in front of all your teammates
TH: Yeah, I got cleaned up. I was very lucky. I was living with Dad at Craigmore at the time still. I was just in and out of homes. We beat Vics had a few beers, went home, Dad dropped me back at the Lion. Hughesy was going to India the next day so he wasn’t drinking much. And so I didn’t drink … It’s funny how those things work. The one night … Any other time we win a shield game or anything I would have stayed at the Lion, I would have went to Zhivagos.
And so what for whatever reason, I was leaving. There were a few boys who were worse for wear … I was still undecided on whether I was gonna kick on and go to Zhivagos, even though I was sober.
And I was like should I, I’m not sure, and I went to cross the road and he came whipping around the corner and cleaned me up.
MS: The bloke was drink driving. So you ended up with stitches in your head …
TH: Yeah, lucky enough I jumped and hit the windscreen so I think just the inside of my ankle was the only thing. They said if I didn’t, both my legs would have been pretty much cactus.
I remember the car being there and jumping and I flipped back and my head into the windscreen, I went up on the roof and ended up 20 or 30m down the track. Woke up and there was people everywhere. Claret everywhere, The eyes on the back of my head were rolling around.
Then the best thing I did was get in the ambulance and ask for the breatho. Again, don’t know why, I just was like I just I need the breatho because I’m not drinking. I know I know everything that happened, I’m cool. I’ve gonna a bumping headache but I was like, I need the breatho.
So I blew 0.06, so right on the limit to drive … but you (still) know what’s going on. The next day, Keith Bradshaw went to the presser and every question was loaded into drug and alcohol policy: “What are you going to do about it?” He said “Oh, hang on.” (and could point to the breatho reading). It saved my arse because if I woken up next day and no one knew what that number was …
MS: So you’re 19 at this stage. That’s why they made you captain, cos you’re smart enough to go: “Give me the breatho”.
TH: So yeah, so I got through that, jeez I was sore for a few days and the most important thing for me was going and seeing the boys. It would have been pretty tough to see … to see me just get cleaned straight up.
I remember having rashes all over me. I mean gravel rashes everywhere, stitches in the back of my head. Groggy as all like … because I’d been proper knocked out.
MS: So you made a quick recovery?
TH: Played in eight days. I remember running around Adelaide Oval, 40 degree heat, stitches still in …. I remember being so dizzy and so rooted running around Adelaide Oval fielding with stitches still in, they were stretching. I was cooked. I probably would have missed a month nowadays with the concussion stuff.
MS: I want to ask you about Phil Hughes, because I know that within 18 months still, as a young man, you lose one of your good mates. Were you living with him?
TH: Yeah, bits and pieces. So he was in O’Connell St. He had a little apartment and I was living in Gawler still. We went to the Bath Hotel the first day we met him and he came in with his two diamond earrings … We went out and had a few beers … there was a crew of us. Nathan Lyon was still around then.
I said my goodbyes and I was living in Craigmore back then, so I got the $160 cab back to Craigmore and I went to South Gawler next day, watched the footy and had a few beers and phone rings. Oh, it’s Phil Hughes.
MS: And you’d only just met him?
TH: Yeah. I reckon that he got worded up basically. My theory is he got worded up: “Hey, we’ve got a young kid, left hander, look after him a little bit, show him the ropes and whatnot.”
He was also new to town so he was looking for people to hang out with but I think he got directed in my direction a little bit. Then that relationship grew and grew and grew and yeah, I would stop in at his pace and stay every now and then when I didn’t want to go home. So we got really close and he was great for my game as well.
MS: What did he teach you?
TH: His self belief and the belief of winning a game was nothing like I’ve ever witnessed and I try and take that now. It’s like, if I get a duck in the first innings, I’ll just try and get 100 in the second innings.
MS: And you think of Phil straight away?
TH: Yeah, and I tell guys the same thing. He was just like, don’t worry, you’ll get 100 in the second innings and you can win the game. His belief … he would send us messages going: “Don’t worry boys, tomorrow I’ve got all under control”.
Or we would be in trouble or we need to win the game, and he goes, “Don’t worry boys leave it to me”. And the majority of times he’d walk out and get one.
He was a freak. Like he was 26 and had 27 first-class hundreds. He would have played so much Test cricket. But, cricket aside, just how good a bloke he was and everything … but an absolute freak. His self belief … he got dropped four times from Australia and went back four times. But just an absolute freak.
I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve never seen (anyone) tear teams apart like that. So yeah, we grew a close bond and I tried to play in the same way. Trained hard, played hard …. we sort of gravitated to each other. So it was nice.
MS: When the tragedy happened with Phil, does it make you question cricket? How does that affect you guys, particularly a young man who, it sounds like he was a huge mentor for you?
TH: It affected us hugely early. I still think of the dangers, even though it was such a freak accident, a freak accident could happen again.
So I think about it a lot and think about him a lot. So yeah, it’s tough. It’s a long time ago. Time has flown. So it’s still difficult. Yeah, it still goes through your mind and then, I guess when they are bowling fast, if those things do come in your head, when it’s released you forget about them and you get on with it … but having seen it and being there in person … it’s still there. There’s battles … The scars are there, definitely.
MS: Have you made it? Do you feel you’ve made it in cricket?
TH: That’s a hard one. I’m very pleased with where I’ve come to and I feel like I’ve got a lot more to give.
There’ll be definitely times now in my career that I will prioritise my family more, now with Milla. So I think that has changed a huge deal. I think in the past I’ve been very selfish in what I’ve done, which is fine. You have to be to get where we are. I’ve prioritised what I wanted to prioritise to get to where I am. Definitely very happy and very pleased where I’m at.
But there’s a lot more to give, but it’d be done in a slightly different way, I reckon.
MS: How did you wow Jessica?
TH: We were together at school. We met at Trinity College then we had a few years apart. But we always kept in contact. We started talking again around that first shield final, or maybe second one, and then I was going to India the next day and then going straight to England. And I flew her to England …
MS: I hope you paid for the trip when you told her to come. That’s the best investment you’ve ever made.
TH: yeah, it’s very funny because I flew her business as well. So I set an early precedent, didn’t I. And she won’t mind me saying this. But yeah, it’s an expensive date … But it was definitely worth it.
MS: Trav, what do you still want to achieve and cricket
TH: Plenty. I’ve got a lot more to give. Whatever that means for Australia. But I’d love to play for a lot longer in South Australia. I’ve got eight to 10 years hopefully left in me. I’d love to have some success.
I think we’re building something and very quietly going about business. I have a lot of pride in the South Australian stuff. It was nice win a BBL title. But yeah, to have something for SA would be very nice. It’s been a long time between drinks.
That’s probably one thing, that’s probably the last thing that I could want to pick off. Having played for Australia … to win a shield would be nice to tick off.
MS: Trav congratulations. Thanks so much for joining us. I really appreciate you being so open and honest and all the best to you and Jess and little Milla.
TH: Beautiful. Thanks, mate.
Originally published as The Soda Room podcast: Cricket star Travis Head on becoming a father, his Test debut and Phil Hughes
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