The first delivery of last season’s Ashes series was when Shane Warne’s relentless criticism of Mitchell Starc crossed the line into vaudeville.
Starc sent a screaming yorker swinging around the legs of England opener Rory Burns that crashed into his leg stump, sending Brisbane’s Gabba crowd into raptures as lounge rooms, pubs and clubs around the country erupted.
Mitchell Starc celebrates striking with the very first ball of the Ashes last season.Credit:Getty Images
But having suggested before the Test that Starc shouldn’t have been in the side, Warne was almost deadpan in the Fox commentary box.
“That’s a half-volley on leg stump. It’s a great start from the Aussies and Mitchell Starc, but as an opening batsman, you’ve got to be able to hit that. You shouldn’t miss that ball,” Warne said.
Australia’s greatest bowler, who died of a heart attack last March, called Starc “soft” at the Gabba back in 2014 but insisted his criticism of Starc was never personal, and that he would have been happy to catch up with the big left-armer for a beer.
“I guess we’ll never know. I don’t know,” Starc said before training at Allan Border Field on Thursday ahead of the first Test against South Africa, beginning on Saturday at the Gabba. “I never got a phone call to take up that offer. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.”
Rory Burns is bowled by Mitchell Starc with the opening ball of the Ashes last season.Credit:Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images
Starc is just four wickets away from becoming only the seventh bowler to take 300 wickets for Australia. Warne tops the list with 708.
There is a belief that Warne’s criticism stemmed from something Starc said a decade ago, when Warne was turning out for Melbourne Stars in the Big Bash at the age of 42.
Australia had spent six years unsuccessfully casting around for a replacement spinner and Warne never shut down suggestions of a comeback.
“He’s [Warne] done his time,” Starc said in 2012. “He’s obviously done a lot of great things for Australian cricket, but he’s done and dusted now, and Nathan Lyon’s the spinner.”
Shane Warne commentating for Fox in 2019.Credit:Getty
From about that moment, Warne did not let up on Starc.
“That’s part of the evolution, learning to let things go,” Starc said on Thursday. “The disappointing part or the sad part is that we never got to have that conversation. I guess we’ll never know. It’s part of cricket, you’re going to have your critics and everyone is entitled to have an opinion. I’ll just keep going about my cricket.”
Starc could be a genuinely cranky fast bowler on and off the field when he started, but has mellowed over the years to the point where he now prefers a smile to a sledge.
“I was someone who listened to and read everything. And then that year we had multiple broadcasters start [2018], everyone coming in with radio and whatever, that’s when it really doubled down on the noise and it really got away from (me),” Starc said.
“That’s where I learnt best to let things go and only worry about the groups that mattered most to me. That was a point where it changed a fair bit for, where I chose not to read things and it’s continued on where it doesn’t matter.”
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