\u201cMum, I want to try cricket.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cMum, I want to try cricket.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Travis Head celebrates his century in the World Cup final.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n These were the words ringing in Ann Head\u2019s ears every summer as she drove her son Travis past the local cricket club on the way to indoor soccer. Invariably, there\u2019d be kids either playing cricket or training, and he wanted in.<\/p>\n Fed up with her son\u2019s nagging, Ann stopped in so he could have a hit, hoping he would be told he was too little \u2013 and that would be the end of that. The last thing she needed was another activity on top of soccer, football and athletics.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d had enough of him in my ear,\u201d Ann recalled this week. \u201cTravis is not a very big child, so I pulled into the car park, out we go.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to take him there and for them to tell him he\u2019s too small, come back next year.<\/p>\n Travis Head with his parents Ann and Simon and wife Jessica.<\/span><\/p>\n Instead, her son was put through a net session. Ordinarily, the odds would have been stacked in Ann\u2019s favour. Her son was only six, and trying out for an under-11 side.<\/p>\n \u201cWe put him in the nets, and they came back and said \u2018he\u2019ll do perfectly well, he can hold his own, he\u2019ll be alright\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cI said \u2018OK, thank you very much, now I have Saturday morning cricket, and Sunday morning athletics\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Travis Head and wife Jessica after the win over India.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n Australia owes a debt of gratitude to Ann Head, whose wide-eyed sports-loving son with what the French would describe as the joie de vivre<\/em> became the toast of the nation this week after bringing down the powerhouse of the modern game, India, to deliver the country a record sixth men\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n Head is Australian cricket\u2019s newest hero. As unworldly as his on-field deeds may seem, there is an element of the everyday man in the boy from Adelaide\u2019s northern suburbs.<\/p>\n Yes, he has a $3 million home in Adelaide\u2019s foothills, but fans can readily identify with his handlebar moustache, heavy hitting and love of a good time. The vigour with which he has celebrated hasn\u2019t hurt either, nor too Mitch Marsh\u2019s quip Head would struggle to recover in time to play in the first Twenty20. He missed the game.<\/p>\n \u201cTo tell you the truth, I haven\u2019t seen my son drunk,\u201d his mother said. \u201cNow the whole world has seen him drunk on social media.\u201d<\/p>\n Every club cricketer in the land would know of a teammate still yarning over a beer in their whites the morning after a flag, or in Head\u2019s case the 2021-22 Ashes when he was booted off a rooftop bar after an all-night session.<\/p>\n Travis Head at 12.<\/span><\/p>\n He\u2019s grateful too. When home, he often takes time out to support his local club, Tea Tree Gully, and mix with starstruck younger players, grateful for the club\u2019s nurturing of him as a boy. Former coaches and teammates admire his humility and respect he shows for his roots.<\/p>\n Once when the Bulls had a first-grade bye, Head, by then South Australia\u2019s captain, famously turned out on a matted pitch for another of his grassroots clubs, South Gawler. At a Bulls past players\u2019 day last season, Head made the 40-minute drive from home to visit before an Adelaide Strikers game later that evening.<\/p>\n \u201cHe came into the change rooms and introduced himself to the younger guys playing,\u201d Head\u2019s first captain at first grade, Matt Weaver, said. \u201cThey\u2019re in awe of Trav being there.\u201d<\/p>\n As a kid, Head played soccer (indoor and outdoor) and football but cricket was his love; a passion that started, as many in his generation did, watching the likes of Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist. In his first game for the Craigmore Cricket Club, he didn\u2019t bat or bowl, and fielded the ball only once.<\/p>\n \u201cThe smile on his face, I couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d Ann said. \u201cHe was just ecstatic.\u201d<\/p>\n Said his father Simon: \u201cIt was the best day of his life.\u201d<\/p>\n The runs soon came. At age 10, he had caught the eye of no lesser judge than former Test spinner Peter Sleep from the Tea Tree Gully Cricket Club, which fields a team in Adelaide\u2019s grade competition.<\/p>\n Sleep coached Head through his teenage years until he broke into state ranks as an 18-year-old. Nicknamed \u201cSounda\u2033\u2063, Sleep carved out a respectable 14-Test career as a leg-spinning all-rounder, mainly in the 1980s, but that may not have been his most important contribution to Australian cricket. He was the coach who advised Head to give up the gloves.<\/p>\n \u201cI told him, I reckon you should give away the wicketkeeping and take up batting because there was only one spot for a wicketkeeper and six spots for the batting,\u201d Sleep said.<\/p>\n Rising through the ranks from fourth grade as a 14-year-old to making his debut in first grade at 16, Head not only had to cope with the step up in standard but also navigate the challenges that came with being the young buck in the dressing room.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he started playing A-grade he was very quiet, like most kids brought into A-grade cricket they feel a little uncomfortable,\u201d Sleep said. \u201cHe was no different to anyone else.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter 10 games or so he knew what was going on, how to conduct himself. He was still reserved in the sense because there are blokes who had played a lot more A-grade cricket than he had. He knew when to keep his mouth closed and when to say something.\u201d<\/p>\n Sleep knew Head was a future first-grade player the moment he made an unbeaten 24 on debut. As for higher honours, \u201cyou\u2019re always hoping, but you never really know\u201d, Sleep said.<\/p>\n Every player has a slice of good fortune in their rise to the top. Head\u2019s father believes his son\u2019s slice of luck came when another rising star at the time, George Horlin-Smith, chose football over cricket. Horlin-Smith was drafted by Geelong in 2010, paving the way for Head to be a project player.<\/p>\n \u201cNext year [season], Chuck is looking for a young junior and Travis gets the gig,\u201d Simon said. \u201cHad George stayed in cricket, would he have got the gig? The door opened at the right time, but he took every one of those chances.\u201d<\/p>\n Darren Berry, then coaching SA, threw Head a first-class debut in early 2012 as an 18-year-old. His first impression of Head? A \u201crough diamond\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cKids coming through can be very entitled, Travis was never about that,\u201d Berry said. \u201cThat had a lot to do with his upbringing. He didn\u2019t come out of money, private school or anything like that. He was rough and ready. A rough diamond: that\u2019s how I would describe him when I first met him.\u201d<\/p>\n Head had not made a first-grade ton at that stage but had caught Berry\u2019s eye with his pure ball-striking. When he was appointed the state\u2019s youngest captain at 21, he had not made a first-class ton either.<\/p>\n \u201cHe hit the ball, and it thundered off the bat,\u201d Berry said. \u201cIt was like \u2018whoa, there\u2019s something special here\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n The former wicketkeeper\u2019s fielding also left an impression \u2013 this, not so good.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he first came in, he was a horrible fielder,\u201d Berry said with a laugh. \u201cCouldn\u2019t catch. I used to call him Edward Scissorhands. We spent a lot of time hitting him high balls on Adelaide Oval.\u201d<\/p>\n It was time well spent. Head\u2019s classic catch to dismiss Rohit Sharma was the<\/em> pivotal point in Sunday\u2019s final.<\/p>\n \u201cThe other night while I was commentating, whilst his hundred was brilliant, the catch off Rohit Sharma gave me a real smile thinking there\u2019s the kid who couldn\u2019t catch a cold, and he\u2019s taken a bloody good catch at a very important context of the game,\u201d Berry said.<\/p>\n Head\u2019s early days at state level were not without disappointments. He debuted at a turbulent time for SA cricket amid a stretch of five bottom finishes in six Sheffield Shield seasons.<\/p>\n Four games into his second season, Head was staring at the axe after 55 runs in six innings. Backed in by Berry, Head struck a typical first-day seamer\u2019s paradise at Bellerive. With temperatures in single digits, 13 wickets tumbled on a rain-interrupted day \u2013 all to pace. One was Head\u2019s for a second-ball duck.<\/p>\n \u201cThey all looked at him in the change rooms as if you\u2019re done,\u201d Head\u2019s father said. \u201cA teammate said to him \u2018what\u2019s your plan for the second innings\u2019? [He said] \u2018If it\u2019s on the stumps I\u2019ll block, if it\u2019s wide I\u2019ll throw the kitchen sink at it\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Berry remembers the match with good reason. Head responded with a game-high 75 off 108 balls in a 15-run victory for SA \u2013 their first shield win in 21 games. Berry describes that game as the moment the penny dropped for Head.<\/p>\n \u201c[He\u2019d been] a bit stiff and trying a bit too hard,\u201d Berry said. \u201cThen he thought \u2018f— it, I\u2019m going to play how Travis Head plays\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cAt times he gets out a bit loosely but to his credit he\u2019s maintained that [his way] and been a match-winner because of it. I admire that he had the balls to do it in that Tassie game.<\/p>\n \u201cI vaguely remember saying \u2018we\u2019re sticking with you, I believe in you, you\u2019re the future but we really need something out of you\u2019, and I think he just thought f— it, I\u2019m going to smack it.\u201d<\/p>\n Head reached a similar crossroads in his Test career after being dropped in the series against India in 2020-21. Dumped in the 2019 Ashes when he was out bowled or lbw in six of his eight innings, Head came back with a tighter defensive game. His five-hour ton in the Boxing Day Test against New Zealand showed he could grind away but after failing to reach 50 in his next five digs the axe fell again.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he got dropped again he came back and said he tried it their way, I\u2019ll now come back my way,\u201d Simon said. \u201cIf I don\u2019t succeed I\u2019m not good enough, but I won\u2019t die wondering, I\u2019ll have a crack my way. Justin Langer would have backed that.\u201d<\/p>\n Succeed he has. Since his return for the 2021-22 Ashes, Head is averaging 50 with a strike rate of 79, compared to 40 and 50 before that.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact he had their support, we\u2019re backing you in to be you, that was a massive turning point in his career,\u201d Simon said.<\/p>\n Success, though, has not changed Head as a person. When Berry congratulated Head after his World Cup heroics, he received a warm message back reminiscing on the pair\u2019s early days as player and coach. Head\u2019s first captain at first grade Weaver can relate to the stories filtering home from India of the left-handed wonderbat\u2019s post-match festivities.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s been part of eight or nine premierships with Tea Tree Gully and each of them he\u2019s given it a good crack,\u201d Weaver said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of photos of him in whites at 3 or 4am and still looking to kick on. He\u2019s got a lot of time for the guys he plays with \u2013 at all levels.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s playing a significantly higher level of cricket now, but he still enjoys the success. That\u2019s the best thing about him. If he got a duck, he\u2019d still do the same thing.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a genuinely good fella, keeps it pretty simple, cares about his mates and family. Just one of those guys who hasn\u2019t let success get to his head. He\u2019s a classic. For a guy who has a lot going on, he never not replies to a text. He\u2019s still that bogan from Gawler.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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