Katie Mack: The Adelaide Strikers run machine who has blitzed WBBL in the wrong era
Had she been born in any other country — or another era — Katie Mack would have been an international mainstay. As TIM MICHELL discovers, the Strikers WBBL run machine hasn’t given up on representing Australia.
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For every sporting team which dominates an era, there are hardluck stories of players stuck on the fringes.
Think Jamie Cox, who made more than 18,000 first-class runs but never played a Test match.
Or Jamie Siddons, whose international career consisted of a single ODI appearance against Pakistan despite more than 10,000 Sheffield Shield runs.
Katie Mack can relate to Siddons and Cox.
One of the dominant WBBL batters in the past three seasons, the 30-year-old has been the victim of Australia’s supremacy in women’s cricket during the past decade.
Had she been born in any other country, the Adelaide Strikers opener would almost certainly have been an international cricketer years ago.
But how do you force your way into a team which has boasted the likes of Meg Lanning, Alyssa Healy, Rachael Haynes, Ellyse Perry and Beth Mooney?
“I played a bit of Australia A when I was younger and then we had those couple of Covid years where there wasn’t much going on,” Mack said.
“I managed to make (Australia A) last year. Missed out on the most recent one.
“I’ve always been in and around Australia A, but that’s about as far as it’s gone. I haven’t been a replacement player or anything like that.
“I think I am a bit further away from it than some people think.”
Mack has been central to the Strikers’ emergence as a WBBL powerhouse, helping her side reach the past three finals and secure a maiden title in WBBL08.
Only Mooney, a mainstay of the Australian team and one of the best batters in world cricket, has more WBBL runs than Mack in the past three tournaments.
“I guess that’s the thing about Australian cricket, right? We have got the depth which will hold us in really good stead for many years to come,” Mack’s ACT Meteors coach Erin Osborne said.
“As domestic players, all you can keep doing is scoring runs and presenting yourself as an option to play at the next level. Will she get the opportunity? I really don’t know.
“You always hope that she does. But it’s a tough team to crack. They’re not world champions for no reason.”
Fellow ACT batter Bec Carter has no doubt Mack’s WBBL run spree would translate to international level.
“It’s probably the first time she’s been in the conversation about national honours,” Carter said.
“But she’s been a very strong performer for ACT Cricket for probably close to a decade now. The last three years, it’s all paid off.”
When the Australia A squad for the women’s Ashes tour was announced in March, Mack was a notable absentee.
Younger players such as Nicole Faltum, Maddy Darke, Charli Knott and Courtney Webb were preferred as selectors took an eye to the future.
Osborne said she hoped age would not count against Mack, who turned 30 in September, in Australian discussions.
“She’s the fittest in our squad. She’s strong,” Osborne said.
“She prides herself on doing all the little things and she’s extremely professional and looks after herself. I don’t think age comes into it with her.
“It’s just the timing and whether there are spots available in the team because it’s an extremely talented team.
“She just needs to keep doing what she does, scoring runs at domestic level and if there is an opportunity that presents, I have no doubt she’d be more than ready.”
One of the most signifciant changes Mack has made in the past three years has been a marked increase in her strike rate.
In her last two seasons as a Melbourne Stars player, 2016 and 2017, she struck at 100 and 105.4 runs per 100 balls.
Last summer, she made 513 runs with a strike rate of 115.
This tournament, she has 449 runs at almost 120.
“She was keen to evolve as a cricketer and be able to accelerate in her innings a little bit earlier than previously,” Osborne said.
“She’s added more shots to her game, which has helped. I think we’re just seeing an experienced cricketer now that knows her game and continues to reflect on her innings and find ways of getting better each and every time she goes out to bat.”
One of those shots is the ramp, which Mack has employed successfully throughout WBBL09 to get herself moving.
Australian women’s cricket is entering a new era after Lanning’s international retirement.
Alyssa Healy is 33 years old, Ellyse Perry 33, Jess Jonassen 31 and Megan Schutt 30.
The future planning has already begun with the successful integration of players such as Phoebe Litchfield, Annabel Sutherland and Darcie Brown into the national squad.
What can’t be underrestimated is the leadership vaccuum Lanning has left.
Healy looms as her natural successor, while all-rounders Tahlia McGrath and Ash Gardner have been touted as future leaders.
But if selectors wanted an experienced batter with leadership qualities to fill the Lanning void, Mack would be a standout choice.
She has led a developing ACT team for the past two years and relished the extra responsibility.
“I actually feel like I have changed quite a bit with it,” Mack said.
“Having to learn how to communicate with people better and talk to different people and get the most out of different people.
“It’s been challenging, but I have really enjoyed it.”
Selectors would have no reason to question her fortitude either.
Remarkably, Mack played in WBBL08 finals with a broken hand — not realising the severity of the problem until weeks after the tournament.
Mack juggles life as a physio with cricket and says she “probably wouldn’t give the same advice to anyone else” about playing through pain.
“We were sort of thinking, ‘it can’t be broken’ but I was like, ‘it’s still really sore’,” she said. “So I probably convinced myself that I just being a bit of a wuss and to get on with it.
“I ended up getting an MRI to check it out and it came up with a pretty big fracture.”
Mack’s immediate focus will this week turn to a home WBBL09 final as the Strikers attempt to cap three years of dominance with a second title.
Her prolific opening partnership with South African superstar Laura Wolvaardt has been integral to that success, giving a powerful middle-order of Tahlia McGrath, Bridget Patterson and Madeline Penna a platform to shine.
Whether Mack ever joins Wolvaardt and McGrath as an international player or not, those closest to her have no doubt she has the quality to be successful at the next level.
“She’s probably at a point in her career where she’s just very accepting of whatever comes her way. She’s just enjoying her cricket,” Carter said.
“I can’t see a world where if she gets the opportunity, she doesn’t fit in and look like she’s been there for her whole career.”
Mack adds: “I have come through at probably one of the hardest points to get a gig in the Aussie team. They have been so successful and dominant.
“It’s a very hard team to get into and that’s also one of the reasons why I don’t focus on it too much.
“I would love to, but I am quite happy with what I am doing and being able to perform for ACT and the Strikers. I find a lot of joy in doing that and captaining ACT.”
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