GQEBERHA: Not like Oprah Winfrey, laughs Grace Harris. For the Australian, The Oprah Winfrey Show is a bit too serious. If she had to be a TV host, Harris believes she would be like Ellen DeGeneres. “She can have a bit of fun and I'd love to do all those games that she played. So, if I ran a show similar to hers, that would be pretty fun,” Harris tells this daily.
Now, one might think why are we talking about a potential TV show with an Australian all-rounder? Because with Harris, cricket isn’t everything. For her, it is all about having fun in everything she does. She is the loudest member in the Australian dressing room, someone who cannot stop chatting, who commentates on her batting every ball as she bats, whether it’s in a game or in the nets. Her Twitter bio reads, ‘If you can’t be good, be good at it!’. If you ask her about it, she’ll say that she heard it from a cheeky relative. “Essentially, it means if you're not gonna go well then at least get away with it. So, I thought it was pretty apt for myself, especially with some of the exploits that I've gotten into over the years,” she laughs.
Her approach stems from the fact that there is so much that is happening in everyone’s real life that is challenging and draining, sports should not be one of them. For her, it should be the fun part of one’s life. She believes that there is no point in doing anything without bringing an element of fun to it. That doesn’t mean that she is not serious about her cricket. On the field, she is one of the biggest hitters. She might have already plucked the catch of the T20 World Cup against Sri Lanka. She knows there are times when you have to get your head down and line up with everybody and get on with it, but she just wants to have as much fun as possible out of it.
That she has a role of a disruptor in this Australian team only helps. When Harris walks in, there is only one objective; take on the bowling attack and score quick runs. “Putting a price on the wicket” doesn’t apply to her. She might not get to bat every match, but when she does, Harris changes the game on its head as she did against India in the CWG group stage game. What makes her stand out is that she has become bloody good at it; her strike rate of 191.26 since 2022 is the highest for any batter with more than 20 runs in the period. Make no mistake, it took her some time to get here. She made her debut way back in 2015 as a hitter she is now, but it is the consistency that she has brought in that makes her the “X-factor” as Australian head coach Shelly Nitschke said.
"I worked with some really good coaching staff and I put forward a couple of questions and how to better my game and become the best player that I possibly could be. So yeah, I did a lot of work with that and I was very fortunate that the coaches really backed me in and really worked with me as well to kind of develop a bit more as a batter and a bit more consistent, and then maybe I can still do a kind of 'hitman role' and be more consistent at it," said Harris.
How does she fit in as a character in the serious winning machine that this Australian team is? They have learned to embrace her. “Letting Grace be Grace” seems to be the mantra as Alyssa Healy said in one of the press conferences. “I mean, she switches on, don't get me wrong, she switches on and she knows her game inside out and she knows what she wants to achieve when she steps out on the park which I think is really impressive but she's also really laid back about her game and I think, you know, that laid back attitude and just the fact she loves being out there and enjoys herself, I think rubs off on everybody out there and so it's great to have someone like that in the side,” said the vice-captain.
This World Cup is special for the Australian for other reasons as well. Having missed the 2016 edition due to Deep Vein Thrombosis, the ongoing one is her maiden T20 World Cup. It is where she wanted to be when she made that trip to India in last December and she is having all the fun. For what is sport, if it is not the fun part of one's life.