Hi, I'm Mitch Marsh and I'm going Back to School with Student Edge.
What were you like as a teenager?
What was I like as a teenager?
I was pretty cheeky.
Always been a pretty outgoing kid.
I liked to try everything.
I wasn't the most studious kid but I certainly enjoyed my time growing up.
So, what does cheeky mean?
I enjoyed playing pranks on my mates.
I wasn't necessarily in trouble at school.
I had a great relationship with my teachers, but I liked to give a bit back and could also
take it, so I suppose I had the best of both worlds.
What were the things you liked about school?
Like were there specific classes you liked, or was it just that social aspect?
I enjoyed the social aspect of school.
I went to Wesley College, which is an amazing school.
I think...
I actually looked forward to going to school every day.
I had a great bunch of mates that I'm still friends with now, ten years on.
I had great teachers.
I loved the sporting aspect of Wesley College and the PSA, so I thoroughly enjoyed my time
at school.
So, at that time, you were getting into sport.
You're part of a cricket family.
Was it a foregone conclusion it was always gonna be cricket for you?
How early did that begin?
It wasn't always cricket for me.
I played footy and I enjoyed that.
And I was never really pressured into playing any sport.
I just, like most kids and all my mates, I played cricket in the summer and footy in
the winter.
I enjoyed both and sort of got to a time where I had to choose one and I guess you could
say it was always going to be cricket deep down.
But I did enjoy my footy.
Why cricket?
What is it the thing that did separate it?
That deep down, you felt, that's the one I'm gonna go for.
I think just the opportunities I had, at such a young age, for cricket.
I went over and played my first season of IPL when I was 17 or 18, just out of school.
And that opportunity was brought forward to me at a time where I had to make the decision,
so I just went with my gut and chose cricket and I've sort of never really looked back.
So, cricket can be a challenging sport sometimes, but I love it.
That's a young age to start playing professionally and certainly to start touring, and all that
kind of stuff that comes with it.
Did you feel ready, even though you had finished high school, did you feel ready to begin kind
of a career, like straight out of school?
Yeah, I probably... to be brutally honest I probably wasn't quite ready to begin a career,
but I've learnt so many things over the last eight years of playing professional sport.
I think it's held me in good stead, not only for the future after cricket, but right now,
I've just learnt so much, so, I've had some pretty amazing experiences at a young age,
and I'm forever grateful for that to cricket.
As you're coming to an end at high school and maybe approaching playing cricket, did
you think, 'Well this is it, this is my life, I'm going to be a professional cricket player'
or was it in the back of your mind, 'I need a backup, I need to maybe think of my
options here, because who knows if I make the team' or whatever it might be?
Or was it... were you fairly certain, 'I'm gonna work towards cricket and that's it'?
Yeah I get asked that question a lot, and I suppose for me, some kids at school, they
want to be an accountant, and they put all their eggs in that basket and do everything
they can to be an accountant or to be an electrician when they leave school.
And for me, cricket was no different.
So, although it's a sport and I probably could've had a backup plan, all I wanted to do was
play cricket and every day I got up and tried to be the best cricketer I could be.
It's got me to where I am and I just love the game.
Tell me about that then.
Tell me about making that kind of decision and going, 'I'm going to do this professionally,
so I've got to put the work in'.
Right?
Does it mean literally going into the backyard and hitting a ball up against the wall or...
what kind of things do you do to go, 'I'm going to take that extra step to make this
my profession'?
I certainly hit a lot of cricket balls when I was young.
I was lucky enough we grew up on two and a half acres up in Jandakot.
Dad, being a farmer, he didn't want to live in a small house with no property, so we lived
out there growing up, and we had a cricket net and a bowling machine, so I couldn't tell
you how many balls dad fed through to Shaun and I, but yeah, I'd just come home after
school and hit cricket balls until it was dark and had to come in.
Is there a bit of a friendly/professional rivalry with you and Shaun?
We've never really had a rivalry.
I think we're so close and we're best mates that we just want each other to do well.
I think maybe when we're a bit older and we can look back on our records, maybe we might
have a bit of tongue in cheek, but yeah, look, we just both want each other to do well, and
we're trying to do the best we can.
Well, tell me what it felt like to get to play for Australia?
Like, what does it mean to get to play at that, I guess international level, where you
are representing your country?
Yeah, look, it's just a huge honour.
When you look back, there's been 452, I think, to have played Test Match cricket for Australia
and I'm one of them, so I feel very honoured every day I walk past my baggy green in my
house, although, probably the last twelve months for me haven't been the best in terms
of Test cricket, I still feel very lucky to have played Test cricket. So, I'm injured at the
moment, but everything I'm doing is to get back in that Test team.
What do you do when you're injured?
How do you not bide the time but like...
What do you do to still feel part of it?
I think, while at the moment I can't really do much, so I'm pretty limited to what I can do.
But once we get into it, our pre-season's pretty full on.
There's probably six days a week and we're training pretty much all day, so we do keep ourselves
busy.
At the moment, I'm struggling because I can't play a guitar, I can't fish and I can't play
golf, so I can't really do much.
But yeah, I'm always finding ways.
When did you start playing guitar?
I started playing guitar when I was about 18.
Okay.
My best friend sort of taught me and I sort of self taught myself on the road with YouTube.
I like to play.
I play pretty much every day, when I can.
So, yeah I thoroughly enjoy it.
You haven't considered that as the backup?
The musical career?
Yeah, I might get on the X Factor in a couple years.
I dunno.
Well, just wrapping up, do you have any regrets when you look back on your teenage days?
Probably my one regret is not choosing to do my TEE.
I think it's a great thing for kids to do and I was certainly very capable of doing
that, but like I said, I sort of only wanted to play cricket, so that was my only focus.
But I think it's really important as a teenager and as an adult to have balance in your life
and I think I could of handled both things, but that's probably my one regret.
But apart from that, I really enjoyed myself.
Did that mean you didn't take TEE, or ATAR as it's known, subjects, or just the TEE itself?
I took a couple of TEE subjects but not enough to get a score, so, I think I could have taken
on a bit more.