Ellyse Perry was being introduced at an SCG function by Adam Gilchrist. “We’ve got a wonderful person here,” Gilchrist said. “A wonderful lady. A superstar not just of Australian cricket, but of Australian sport.” Perry blushed and smiled and looked at the ground and got all embarrassed.
I remember thinking how sweet that was. The decency and the humility.
She’s one of Australia’s most famous athletes. And one of the more mysterious. Interviews are rare outside the obligatory post-match press conferences. A public figure lives a very private life. Praise of the sort offered by Gilchrist is always appreciated but her response, bringing Cathy Freeman to my mind, is forever to blush and smile and look at the ground and get all embarrassed.
Ahead of the Women’s Ashes, starting on Thursday at Trent Bridge, she opens up more than usual in an exclusive interview with The Weekend Australian.
What does it mean to you to play sport for Australia? What IS Australia to you? What and who do you feel like you‘re representing? If you had to describe Australia to a stranger, the place and the people, what would you say?
“I feel the deepest sense of belonging when I think about Australia. I’d describe the sensation of bliss and total freedom I always feel when I arrive home after a trip overseas. No matter how many trips I’ve been on, that sensation has never dimmed. I look out the window of an aircraft and see the sweeping views of Sydney’s coast, it always strikes me just how incredibly lucky I am. Lucky to have grown up in such a wonderful environment. Lucky to have been given every opportunity imaginable as a child. Lucky to have had the freedom as a young girl and now as a woman to strive for my dreams and aspirations. Australia has afforded me a life that I appreciate many others may not experience. When I’m playing sport for this amazing country of ours, I just feel this overwhelming sense of gratitude. And equally, the idea that we, as a team, are hopefully portraying a way of life that is about having a crack, being fair, supporting your mates and doing your best. You know that’s all anyone back home wants you to do.”
You were picked for your first Test when you were 16. You went and practised your bowling run-up in a park. Who was that girl? What was she like? What did she think the future held? You’re 32 now. You’ve spent half your life playing sport for Australia, football and cricket. What have you learned about yourself? Who are you now? Who do you want to be?
“I can see now that young girl was incredibly fortunate. She was one of the luckiest girls in the world, I think. I’d grown up playing sport with my family and my friends. It was knitted into the fabric of my childhood and I absolutely loved it. Mum and Dad were so incredibly encouraging without ever being pushy parents. Dad would spend hours down at the nets or the local park helping my brother and I learn how to throw, kick, catch, hit and bowl. Mum would race home from work of an evening to take us out for a bike ride, a swim or a run before dinner. I spent so much time playing as a child and then as I got a bit older, being part of more organised sporting competitions was just something I knew I wanted to do. I just wanted to try to get better. When I was selected for Australia for the first time, it came as a genuine shock. Not just to me but to everyone, I’m fairly sure. One of the best parts about the whole experience, and perhaps the few years that followed, was the sense of naivety I carried with me. I don’t think I really understood too much about what was happening, other than it was going to be a tough game of cricket and I needed to try my hardest to be ready and not let anyone down. I just wanted to play well and help my team. It was that simple. Running off to the park to practice my action, I guess it was just a natural reaction for someone that age. Dad had always taught us to practice our technique and it just felt like the easiest and best way to get ready for the game.”
Bowl well in the park?
“That memory makes me laugh now. I think how silly I must have looked in a park in Darwin, shadow-bowling to the trees. I’m truly grateful to have had that experience at such a young age. I can still feel what it was like to go on my first tour, to meet my teammates for the first time and to play my first game. I was essentially a child existing in an adult world.”
Meaning?
“I had the freedom to be exactly who I was. There was no pretence involved. I lacked any kind of awareness about image, about what I wanted for the future or about what was on the line. If I look back now, it’s probably the closest I’ve ever been to just completely operating in the present moment. Who I am now is far more aware, responsible and capable, but there’s something to be said for the freedom of being totally present, like most young kids are so great at being. I suppose in a roundabout way, what I’ve learnt from those first experiences is that no matter how old you are and how much you’ve experienced or how much you think you know, the only moment that will ever matter is the one you’re in right now. It’s important in life and it’s important in sport. You learn that whether things have previously gone really well or shockingly, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t have any bearing on this present moment. All that matters, I think, is trying your hardest to make the most of the moment you’re in right now.
What’s important to you in life? And where does sport fit in?
“I think the most important part of life is the exploration. Constantly learning and trying to grow as a human in this amazing world of ours. Exploring what life actually is without the goal of having to find the answer. I just think there’s boundless possibilities to explore life, to explore the world we’re in, to learn about ourselves, which we all do in our own time and in our own way. Sport has been a huge part of the adventure for me. It’s revealed a lot about life to me. It’s given me some of the greatest experiences and challenges I’ll ever have and it’s helped me to understand myself and others better. It’s given me innumerable amounts of joy and pleasure.”
You love a good quote, song lyric. Why?
“I love writing things down. Sometimes they’re the most mundane words, like my schedule for the day, but other times they feel like the most poignant and important thoughts. I don’t tend to re-read what I’ve written. I feel like those words belong to that moment. They’re an expression of who I am at that point in time rather than a piece to reflect on. The quotes I write down tend to match the way I’m thinking or feeling in a moment. Writing something down, I just feel like it gives significance to your thoughts. Formalises them. It’s like words become official when you write them.
To be able to articulate what you’re thinking and feeling by putting it into words on a piece of paper – it gives those thoughts a greater sense of clarity, I think, and spares you the need to constantly ruminate over things in your own mind.”
Skinny Love by Bon Iver. Is that song really your wake-up alarm? Why?
“Music has this amazing capacity to reveal emotions and feelings that often you don’t even know you’re harbouring until the right sound, the right lyric or the right melody hits you at the exactly the right time. Music is incredible for the fact it just seems to fit into every moment in life. It enhances a feeling, whether good or bad, and what could better than powerful feelings? It helps us to truly connect with the present moment, which can otherwise can be so elusive. Yeah, that song is my alarm. I think because most alarm clock noises are jarring and have the ability to make you agitated the minute you wake up! But it’s also because it’s a beautiful song that was particularly poignant to me when I was in high school. I remember thinking at the time that waking up to that song would remind me of the beauty and opportunity of a brand new day.”
You were at a Luke Combs concert in Nashville last month. How’d that come about?
“A great friend introduced me to country music a while ago. I love it. The storytelling in the lyrics can paint such a vivid picture. I think country songs are trying to tell you something. I think you can listen to a country song and in your mind, you can create this visual of the characters and where the song’s story is taking them. I spent some time in the States earlier this year and it coincided with Luke Combs playing in Nashville. It was so amazingly great. It seemed like there wasn’t any other place to be that night than right there.”
Your T20 batting is going gangbusters. Quite the evolution. How’s it come about?
“I don’t think there’s anything too fantastical about my game or how things have developed. I’ve always spent lots of hours in the nets hitting balls with my dad or with coaches at training because, selfishly, it’s always given me great joy and pleasure. There’s always the amazing opportunity to grow and get better at whatever you do in life. That’s the wonderful challenge of it all. To some extent, I think that over a period of time I’d slipped into a way of playing that lacked vision or a sense of creativity. In retrospect, without consciously realising it, maybe I’d started to restrict myself to what had, to some degree or another, worked for me previously. I’d become beholden to that version of myself as a player. I knew and felt a level of comfort with how I did things and relied on consistently producing the same thing as my way of contributing to the team. In the last little bit I’ve really wanted to be more open to the way sport constantly gives you the chance to experience something new. To continually learn and progress without being restricted to old ideas and habits. In other words, the past. Creativity has become a big part of the way I think about things now. I feel like the best way to be creative when I’m batting is to be open to the possibility every ball presents and play it in a way that isn’t scripted. To not be bound to the way I’ve played that same ball in the past. You reach a point where you just need to get out of your own way and let things unfold. Play what’s in front of you. I’m just trying play to in the most creative and natural way I can.”
Sixteen years of representing Australia. Half your life.
“It’s been an incredible experience. One that I feel so incredibly fortunate to have been afforded. The success we have had as a team has been so amazingly rewarding, and to have played in an era with so many wonderful players, some of the best we’ve ever produced, and to be able to represent this country we all really love, it’s been a privilege. There’s so great memories and life experiences and friendships. Some of the best times are still when I was playing cricket as a kid, at the local nets or in the backyard with my mum, dad and my brother – they’re still some of the most cherished memories of my life. The road trips I did with Dad to different games and carnivals, the evening sessions at the nets where we’d hang around until it got so dark that I was guessing where the ball was without being able to see it, Mum running after stray balls for us, collecting them and bringing them back. I think I‘d play a game of cricket anywhere, any time I could find one. Any time I could a find a team that would have me. I just really enjoy everything about it. One of the first things I do when I get back to Sydney these days is meet my family at the St Ives nets for a practice session. That’s still one of the great joys of my life.”
Your man Luke Combs has a song called Doin’ This. It’s about doing what you love, no matter how successful you are. He reckons if he wasn’t singing at the Grand Ole Opry, he’d be singing in some no-name town on a hardwood floor. It goes, ‘Someone asked me once in an interview, what was growing up like? Where’d you go to school? And what would you do, if you weren’t doin’ this?’ Let’s pull up stumps with a question from Luke Combs. If you weren’t playing cricket for Australia next week, Ellyse Perry, what would you be doing?
“If I wasn’t doin’ this? You know exactly what I’m going to say. I’d still be doin’ this!”
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