Source :- THE AGE NEWS
It might be confusing to be labelled an “enigma” at the ripe old age of 19.
Rock stars, politicians and sports stars tend to fill the niche more than nuclear physicists or the neighbourhood postie, but no occupation is exempt.
It usually takes some time and a little effort to become an enigma because you have to establish a regular persona first. This generally takes a while in the public space, then you have to ripen those characteristics, i.e. become misunderstood or inconsistent with those expected traits.
Sam James Konstas jolted fans, coaches and mentors out of their festive season lounge chair lethargy with batting that is hard to forget. The flabbergast from coaches and mentors is not about how many Test runs he is making, but how he is making them. And then there was the non-playing theatrics.
His batting in his short Test career has been outrageous – sort of in a good way and sort of in an enigmatic way; mysterious and effective, yet hard to find a niche for it in the lengthy archives of Test cricket.
England’s Ben Duckett and Harry Brook, under the gaze of Brendon McCullum, have led a charge of sorts into this rampage and scoop era, so it can’t be said that Konstas has a patent on such unorthodoxy. Javed Miandad (who learnt it off Mushtaq Mohammad) and Mike Gatting were reverse sweeping in the early 1980s. Gatting famously got out while playing the stroke to Allan Border in the World Cup final in 1987, effectively handing the trophy to Australia. A single failure led to a generation of derision for “Gatt” – and the stroke.
Sam Konstas took the cricket world by storm with his unconventional approach at the MCG on debut.Credit: Getty Images
Cricket’s pundits have been split in their acceptance of Konstas’ methods and his reluctance to show deference to his seniors in the opposition. Deference is a separate beast to respect. The intense media scrutiny that all international cricketers are subject to has magnified any eyebrow raise from the teenage debutant.
But he has revelled in the scrutiny and the competition, which is not surprising since he is a child of the social media-driven 21st century and has seen his picture on small screens since he was nine years old, when he started making hundreds.
I repeat the direction I received from Dan Christian after the Australian under-19 tour of the UK in 2023: “Just pick him and leave him there”. That was when Konstas was 17. My fellow NSW selectors and I were reluctant at first because he was so young, but even dullard selectors must concede to the bleeding obvious.
From the time of his first selection in the Blues senior team he has been a prolific run maker and shown respect and humility. Konstas could be a disciple of fellow Hurstville Oval run machine Donald Bradman, whose mantra was to conduct your life with “integrity, courage and, perhaps most of all, with modesty. These virtues are totally compatible with pride, ambition and competitiveness”.
The crowd imitate Sam Konstas … and he loves every moment.Credit: Getty Images
That credo just about sums Konstas up, even in his tender teenage years. Granted the crowds at Sheffield Shield games aren’t clambering over fences or each other to grab a selfie or an autograph, as they were at the Melbourne and Sydney Cricket Grounds, but in those state games he has batted mostly within the limits of orthodoxy and behaved impeccably. In 11 first class games before his first Test, he wouldn’t have played more than three ramp shots in total, but he did practice the shot often.
So why the new-found on-field ruckus?
A grey-bearded cricket pundit of the amateur but experienced ranks described Konstas as “childishly crass” and “arrogantly reckless”, who “throws his wicket away recklessly” and has “obvious technique problems”. I’ll spare you the rest of the sermon.
All this from a young man who turned a series on its head against the best bowler in the world batting on a fresh cabbage patch and had to suffer an icon of the game attempting to physically intimidate him. Bradman would acknowledge his “courage” in response.
Sam Konstas and Jasprit Bumrah exchange words at the SCG.Credit: Getty Images
Konstas’ simple request for India captain Jasprit Bumrah to wait while his batting partner, Usman Khawaja, appropriately prepared himself for the next delivery was met with a barrage of bile, indicating just how much two Test innings of chaos and success can discombobulate a vulnerable opponent. It would have helped if Uzzie hadn’t nicked the last ball, but you get that in sport.
The evolution from a church mouse in his early cricket to a media and fan hound within 26 balls of his Test career could neither be predicted nor managed. Fans young and old have been drawn unconditionally into the Konstas tornado, short-lived as it has yet been. You can’t judge a book by its cover, they reckon, and Sam’s only just opened the first pages of the first chapter of what may well turn into a classic (check back with me in 50 Tests or so for confirmation).
There is a photograph from the MCG Test of Konstas in mid-shot, mid-ramp if you like. Both feet are girder straight, upright and almost touching each other, his bat is at 90 degrees to his body and the ball hangs directly above his “baggy green helmet” like an inverted exclamation point. There seems no way to generate a forceful hit of the ball. The result is a boundary four, inches from a six.
That is the way of the modern game. There can be no greater contrast in style to that demonstrated in the famous Beldam picture of Victor Trumper, driving down the ground with sparking feet more than a body width apart, front foot midair, flashing hands high, ready to strike – dynamism in a still frame. Both methods work and on another day in another innings that will be Konstas, too.
Australia’s squad for the two-Test tour of Sri Lanka
Steve Smith (captain), Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan McSweeney, Cooper Connolly, Beau Webster, Alex Carey, Sean Abbott, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Matthew Kuhnemann, Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland, Josh Inglis.
If the accusation of arrogance comes from playing audacious strokes, then there is a complete misconception of what “skill” really is. Malcolm Gladwell in his best-selling book Talking to Strangers reminds us of the dangers in judging too quickly.
“We think we can easily see into the hearts of others based on the flimsiest of clues,” he writes. “We jump at the chance to judge strangers. We would never do that to ourselves, of course. We are nuanced and complex and enigmatic. But the stranger is easy.”
Konstas might not quite be the complete stranger since December 26, but the cricket world and beyond are going to learn a lot more about him in the next 15 years or so. I’m betting that respect and humility are cornerstones of his progress.
The Konstas enigma may grow or recede, or pretend it never existed. No matter which, it’s going to be a box-office ride – and he is going to make a load of entertaining runs along the way.
