Australia v India first Test: Todd Murphy’s father Jamie opens up on his son’s remarkable rise
With family against him bowling off-spin, Todd Murphy’s life wasn’t always heading towards this moment. One chance encounter changed things, as dad Jamie recalls.
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It’s something else that Todd Murphy is the youngest Australian cricket to take five wickets on debut.
It’s incredible on so many levels that Todd Murphy is a spin bowler, let alone playing Test cricket.
Murphy’s father, Jamie, was dead against him bowling off spin and tried to stop him doing it.
Todd was only bowling it for a lark when, by random chance, one of Australia’s better spin bowling coaches saw him out the side of his eye.
Then there’s the fact he was a gun Aussie rules footballer who kicked over 100 goals for Moama in the Under 14s.
It’s extraordinary that Murphy is even in the Test side.
He has had hardly any experience. He’s played just five Sheffield Shield games for Victoria. Shane Warne had, at least, played seven.
Murphy wasn’t even in the Victorian team 12 months ago.
The bespectacled bowler was playing club cricket in Darwin last summer when Australian selector Tony Dodemaide rang out of the blue and asked him if he wanted to come to Sri Lanka and play in the Australia A side with a host of more experienced players, including current teammates Scott Boland and Travis Head.
So, basically, all of his life wasn’t heading to this moment, but a couple of balls in the nets at the Sandhurst Cricket Club in downtown Bendigo.
Jamie along with Todd’s brother Joel, uncle, cousin and girlfriend all made a last minute dash to be on hand for his debut in Nagpur this week and dad told the story of his son’s unlikely journey to Test cricket.
Jamie played a few years cricket as a batsman at St Kilda with the young Shane Warne and knows a bit about the game.
“He’s never been frightened to have a go, never frightened to get beaten, it didn’t worry him,” he said. “I didn’t want him to take up off spin but when he did he was suited to it.
“I just thought to myself in Australia that’s a bloody hard job.
“I always thought Todd would be best suited to bat at seven, bowl a bit, he’d be a good captain and he might be able to make his way that way.
“He was just lucky that Craig Howard noticed him.”
Howard was watching his own son in a representative trial at Rochester.
“He said to me at the time, ‘oh he’s bowling off spin’ and I said ‘I’ve got to get him out of that habit’. Then his coach said ‘they’re coming out so well’.
“I didn’t really know Craig, I knew of him, thought he was a very talent leg spinner, but wondered what he knew about off spin (Howard became an off spinner later in his career) I didn’t know he was into coaching.”
Howard invited the Murphys to come down for a session in Bendigo and said he wouldn’t charge anything. Jamie was still cynical but took Todd, who was 17, to the Sandhurst nets.
“He said to Todd ‘bowl two balls’ and he said ‘he has 95% of the skills already, I’ve never seen a kid like that’,” Jamie said.
“He said ‘that’s first class off spin’. I’ve never seen a kid do that.”
Howard took Todd under his wing at Sandhurst for a year and then the young player moved down to Melbourne to play club cricket.
It has to be said that the Murphy home was a perfect place for breeding cricketers.
His brother Joel was a talented cricketer who set the path for his little brother and the house was almost a cricket academy.
“Joel made him fight for everything in the game and we had plenty of kids coming to play at our house, we had a backyard nets and we built the house with specific room with a cement floor so that they could play footy and cricket inside,” Jamie said.
“They could break windows, whatever, it didn’t worry us.
“I’ve had mini bloody bats through the window, that was him when he was a kid cracking it. We walked in and there was a bat sticking half way in and half way out the window.
“He had a bad temper as a kid but had a very soft side as well, he’s always had a drive to have a go and he was a great captain, he was very good with his teammates.”
Jamie says that as he matured the temper toned down but the drive never did.
And as for all the driving, all the broken windows, all the effort?
“It’s hard work but it’s brilliant, I got to spend times with my kids and that’s the best gift a father can get,” he said.
‘Special couple of days’: Murphy reflects on dream debut
Twelve months ago he wasn’t in the Victorian side and he has only played five Sheffield Shield games in his life, but Australia’s latest spinning star Todd Murphy says a trip to Sri Lanka with the Australian A side gave him the confidence to mix it with the best.
India has a 144 run first innings lead and three wickets in hand, but the 22-year-old from Echuca says the memories of these last two days will stay with him forever.
“It’s been a pretty special couple of days and to top it off with a five wicket haul on debut is more than I ever hope for and it is going to be something that I’ll look back on for the rest of my life and be proud of,” he said.
“I think this time last year I was still not in the state side so it sort of has been quite quick progress but one of the biggest things for me was getting to go to Sri Lanka and being on that A tour and having a little bit of success over that probably gave me the confidence I needed going back to Australia that I could mix it with first class cricketers.
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“Being around some of the guys who had played Test cricket, observing everything and competing in the nets and bowling to the Sri Lankans. I took a lot of confidence out of that and reflected and went back, trusted myself a bit more and thought ‘what I’ve got can be good enough’ and believe in that.”
Scott Boland, Matthew Renshaw, Travis Head, Marcus Harris, Cam Green, Jon Holland and Nic Maddison were in the squad which toured Sri Lanka for an unofficial Test and ODI series in the middle of 2022.
Murphy was a medium pacer who converted to spin five years ago.
“I think in all honesty it was just my medium pace wasn’t really any good anyway, so it sort of just come a time where I was tinkering in the nets with offspin bowling and yeah, got some really good feedback that what was coming out of my hand was all right, so just went from there and kept working at it and it’s been the best thing I’ve ever done. So thankful I have,” he said.
Murphy claimed some big scalps on the day, including Virat Kohli, and then was given the second new ball ahead of his senior bowling partner Nathan Lyon.
“I’ve done a bit of stuff in white ball cricket but rarely in red ball cricket,” he said.
“There was a shield game this year in Australia where I opened the bowling against WA in the second innings. It’s something you work on a little bit and then over here I’ve done a fair bit of stuff in the nets with brand new balls and knowing the natural variation that comes with that is a bit more extreme.
“I knew there would be a time when if I was to play there would be a chance to bowl with the new ball. It’s always nice to stay in the game when the new ball comes.”
His father, brother, uncle, cousin and girlfriend all made the dash from country Victoria to Nagpur for his debut.
He dismissed suggestions by his father Jamie, who played with Shane Warne at St Kilda, that there his son and the leg spinner shared some traits.
“I shook my head when I saw that, I’m not sure I’m anything similar to Warnie,” Murphy said.
“To have them here – it was a pretty hectic couple of days for them to try to get across here, but they’ve been a part of the journey the whole way for me. Being from country Victoria there’s been a lot of hours in the car that they’ve all put in for me to get the opportunities I’ve had. to share the week with them is something we’re going to all remember forever. It’s really special to have them here and they’re all enjoying themselves.”
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