'If any muppet tells you to slow down, he does not understand cricket': The advice that shaped Mitchell Starc

New Delhi: At the post-match presentation ceremony after the Sydney Test, Mitchell Starc, while receiving the Player of the Series medal for his 31 wickets and two match-defining half-centuries at the Gabba and Adelaide, admitted he was “a little bit tired”.

Starc, who will turn 36 in three weeks, bowled 153.1 overs in the Ashes and was pivotal in Australia’s 4-1 triumph. Australia did not have Josh Hazlewood, who was ruled out with hamstring and Achilles tendon injuries. Captain Pat Cummins played only one Test because of a back injury. The hosts also lost Nathan Lyon after the Gabba Test.


But Starc, whom his childhood coach Neil D'Costa calls a “panther”, stood tall, with the left-arm quick admitting this is the best he has ever bowled.

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“Maybe. It feels like it’s going okay, the body is still holding together,” he said at the post-match presentation.

“A little bit tired. Scotty (Boland) and I are on the older side of things, but we still managed to get the job done. Between Scotty, Nes (Michael Neser) and I, we’ve certainly been told we’re not on the younger side of things. But to play the roles that we did, we were a bit tired and sore yesterday,” Starc said.

Starc picked up two wickets on Thursday to wrap up England’s second innings and took his career tally to 433, moving past Richard Hadlee, drawing level with Rangana Herath and sitting just one short of Kapil Dev. With seven more scalps, he would also move ahead of Dale Steyn to break into the top 10 on the all-time wicket-takers list.

Starc has terrorised many batters across the globe in his career, leaving them gasping for breath. However, starting out, he was never a fast bowler. Long before the accolades and comparisons with legends, there was a 14-year-old boy keeping wickets at Homebush Boys High School.

At the start of the Ashes, when TimesofIndia.com reached out to his childhood coach Neil D'Costa , the veteran coach immediately replied with a chuckle. “This story has been done to death.”

After a brief pause, the 55-year-old gathered his thoughts and said, “No harm in recollecting it again.”

D'Costa discovered Starc when the then 14-year-old was trying out for the Western Suburbs Green Shield team. D'Costa , then the club coach, noticed how the tall kid moved and then saw him put on wicketkeeping gloves.

“I called him over and said, ‘I want you to bowl.’”Starc replied that he wasn’t a bowler, but a gloveman. D'Costa asked him again to bowl and this time Starc obliged.

“I then said, ‘Do you want to make this team? If you do, then that’s the end of your wicketkeeping. I’m going to teach you how to bowl.’”

D'Costa has coached the likes of Michael Clarke and Phillip Hughes from a young age and also watched a raw tearaway named Umesh Yadav find his feet while he was the coach of the Vidarbha Cricket Association residential academy in Nagpur from 2008 to 2011.

When coaxed about Starc’s early days, D'Costa paused again before continuing.

“He played in his age group for a representative team and I think Alyssa Healy was in it as well. They certainly knew each other.

“What I saw was a very tall kid who moved like a panther. He threw a stray ball back into a drill from about 50 metres and his mechanics were awesome. I grew up playing baseball, so those things stood out straight away.”

D'Costa was head coach of Western Suburbs Green Shield at the time. Starc was with the juniors. When asked to bowl, the teenager hesitated.

“He was very shy, but you could tell he was a nice kid. I asked his name and then asked him to bowl for me. He very quickly said he was a wicketkeeper-batter. I laughed, but he didn’t.”

When Starc resisted again, D'Costa was firm. “I said, ‘Mate, I’m the head coach here, so it might be a good idea to do what I say.’ I wasn’t smiling anymore.”

What followed confirmed D'Costa ’s instincts. “What I saw was what I thought. He had a West Indian way about him. My brain raced to what he could be, not what he was.”

That belief soon turned into a pathway. D'Costa arranged for Starc to join the West Club Academy.

“Wests club was a huge reason Clarke, Hughes and Starc came through. Many people played roles,” he said.

When D'Costa met Starc’s parents and explained the opportunity, their reaction was disbelief.

“They were in shock and thought I was mad. They asked about costs and I said none. His dad said, ‘Neil, are you sure, mate?’ Lovely guy. I laughed and said, ‘Relax, man. Bring him down and we will have some fun.’”

Training was repetitive and demanding. Sundays in the off-season meant bowling close to 100 balls at Kingsgrove Sports, starting with one step, then three, and gradually building up.

“He was bored out of his brain, but he never questioned it,” D'Costa said.

What stood out just as much as the pace was the personality.

“Everyone liked Mitch. Always smiling and happy. He greeted everyone he met with a warmth and humbleness that is rare. He always gave it all he had.”

The speed arrived quickly. Control did not.

“When he was bowling, wicketkeeper was not where you wanted to be. Or short leg. The pace was frightening. But the wides, no-balls and beamers continued.”

While others urged caution, D'Costa took a different approach.

“I sat with him and said, ‘Is everyone telling you to slow down and get your line and length?’ He said yes. But I had already told him, ‘Mitch, bowl every ball as fast as you can and try to swing the ball. That’s your job.’”

His message was blunt. “If any muppet tells you to slow down and get line and length, make a mental note. He does not understand the game. It’s called fast bowling.”

One Second Grade match became a turning point. Starc opened the bowling. It was quick but erratic.

“He bowled a beamer in the second over and was warned. It scared the hell out of the batter. He did it again and hit the guy on the arm. Mitch’s spell was done.”

Starc was distraught. D'Costa was not. “I walked down to fine leg. He was visibly upset. He felt he let the team down. I was kind of laughing.”

Starc questioned himself. “He said, ‘I’m useless. I can’t bowl again, aren’t you watching?’” D'Costa ’s response was unwavering. “I said, ‘Relax, man. You’re going to play for Australia.’ He looked at me like I had two heads. He said, ‘Coach, you’ve lost it. I can’t bowl, I’m rubbish.’”

D'Costa doubled down. “I said, ‘That bloke is off to hospital. You’re bowling heat. Who cares where it goes right now? You will work that out later.’”

The message never changed. “Speed. Swing. Learn the rest later.” That speed earned Starc selection in NSW Under-17s. Each year he grew stronger, taller and more controlled.

“I always laugh when dads tell their sons to slow down and get your line and length. My job was to get people to leave Mitch alone. I was a bodyguard, not a coach. Mitch coached Mitch.”

Genetics helped. So did mindset. His younger brother Brandon Starc is a high jumper who has won Commonwealth Games gold and competed in multiple Olympics.

“Mitch had great genetics. All his siblings do. His brother is an Olympian. Six foot plus, a great learner, a wonderful, appreciative kid with great manners. It was not hard to want to help him.”

Looking back, D'Costa remains modest about his role. “Our lives crossed paths. I hope I helped him, but many more played roles.”

Years later, every thunderbolt that crashes into the stumps carries echoes of those early Sundays, when one coach saw speed and swing and told a shy wicketkeeper-batter never to slow down.