How Mitchell Starc emerged from Yorkshire CCC unknown onto world stage with Australia

NOT many in this neck of the woods had heard of Mitchell Starc when he arrived to spend a season at Yorkshire in 2012 – not least those responsible for the wording on his sponsored car.
Early days: Mitchell Starc playing for 
Yorkshire Carnegie v Derbyshire Falcons in 2012.Early days: Mitchell Starc playing for 
Yorkshire Carnegie v Derbyshire Falcons in 2012.
Early days: Mitchell Starc playing for Yorkshire Carnegie v Derbyshire Falcons in 2012.

“Mitchell Stac Sponsored By Benfield Hyundai Leeds” the vehicle proclaimed, one of the greatest misspellings in sponsored car history.

Now Starc – not Stac – is a household name, one of the finest left-arm pacemen in the world.

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He will be a big threat to England in today’s T20 World Cup match in Dubai, where Eoin Morgan’s players will be aiming to take an important step towards the semi-finals.

Key wicket: Australia's Mitchell Starc celebrates taking the wicket of England's Joe Root during the ICC Cricket World Cup group stage match at Lord's in 2019. Picture: PAKey wicket: Australia's Mitchell Starc celebrates taking the wicket of England's Joe Root during the ICC Cricket World Cup group stage match at Lord's in 2019. Picture: PA
Key wicket: Australia's Mitchell Starc celebrates taking the wicket of England's Joe Root during the ICC Cricket World Cup group stage match at Lord's in 2019. Picture: PA

Martyn Moxon, the Yorkshire director of cricket who signed Starc along with the then first-team coach Jason Gillespie, remembers well how a punt on a relative unknown at the time – Starc had played only a handful of matches for Australia – turned out to be one of the best overseas signings the club has ever made.

“Starcy was pretty much unknown over here but he had all the attributes and Dizzy (Gillespie, the former Australia fast bowler) knew of him and knew him better than we did, so Dizzy was a big influence on getting him across,” said Moxon.

“It was pretty obvious when he did come over as to his quality, and he was absolutely outstanding for us that year; he and Moin Ashraf... their death bowling was a massive reason why we got to the final that summer.

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“Starcy with his pace, his left arm… that’s kind of gold dust these days with T20 bowlers.

“If they’re left-arm, they’ve got pace and they can bowl at the death, those bowlers are priceless.”

After initial problems with his visa at the Australian end led to the extraordinary situation of Starc being deported at Heathrow, necessitating a 10,000-mile trek all the way home and then another 10,000-mile trek all the way back again, the player inspired Yorkshire to their first T20 Finals Day appearance at the 10th attempt, Yorkshire achieving a 36-run semi-final victory against Sussex in the showpiece event at Cardiff before a 10-run defeat to Hampshire in the final.

Nicknamed ‘The Terminal’ by his Yorkshire team-mates on account of his unfortunate familiarity with airport lounges, Starc did not actually play at Finals Day due to international commitments but he was the club’s leading wicket-taker in that year’s tournament with 21 at 10.38.

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Displaying a tidy line in inswinging yorkers delivered at 90mph, Starc was devastating and brilliantly backed up by the young Ashraf, who helped himself to 15 wickets at 23.93.

Allied to the marvellous contribution of South African left-hander David Miller, another inspired overseas recruit who was Yorkshire’s leading run-scorer with 390 at 48.75, the club enjoyed what remains its most successful T20 campaign.

It was a genuine team effort, spearheaded by Starc and Miller, who proved the value of quality imports as Yorkshire embarked on a memorable roll.

“Miller was equally as good with the bat,” recalled Moxon. “His ball-striking was quite incredible. Starcy was just so consistent and, with Moin, closed out games on a regular basis.

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“That’s crucial if you’re going to win T20 matches, as we saw with Lockie (Ferguson) this year.

“Since he played for us, of course, Starcy has got better and better and he’s a very grounded individual who works hard and is keen to be the best he can be, so it’s no surprise to me that he’s gone on to achieve what he has achieved.”

Starc, 31, has gone on to achieve great success in all forms of cricket since shining for Yorkshire (readers may remember that he actually played against Yorkshire in the T20 Champions League in South Africa that followed, returning Sydney Sixers’ best figures of 3-22 in an eight-wicket win against Yorkshire in Cape Town).

In the Champions League, the home club/franchise had first dibs on a player’s services, hence the Sydney-born Starc’s involvement with the Sixers in that event.

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Starc then helped Sixers to victory in the final against Highveld Lions – alongside his current Australian pace bowling colleagues Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood – as they ran out 10-wicket winners in Johannesburg thanks to an unbeaten 82 from the former Yorkshire batsman Michael Lumb.

Starc had made just four Test appearances when he joined Yorkshire and now has 61 to his credit, plus the small matter of 255 wickets at 27.57.

To put that into perspective, he is just four short of Gillespie’s Test total from 10 fewer games.

Throw in almost 200 one-day international wickets and more than 50 in T20 internationals, and the promise so evident when Starc played for Yorkshire has been gloriously fulfilled.

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Folk over here might not have known much about him all those years ago – especially the good folk at Benfield Hyundai. But Starc is now a Rolls Royce bowler with experience on the clock and a track record to boot, not so much ‘The Terminal’ as a terminal threat to the world’s finest batsmen.