While the 26-year-old Victorian opener Marcus Harris has made his international cricket debut for Australia in the ongoing Adelaide Test against India, his parents proud on it.
On this Thursday (December 6) morning, Harris was handed his Test cap as he is the 456th Test player for Australian cricket. His parents are feeling proud of him but his mother was in tears while his father had a broad smile on his face.
Talking about his son’s international cricket debut, Harris’ father Kim Harris told the media, “Well it has been going on for the last two days. First there was the baggy green presentation on Thursday. And that is very big in Australian cricket and everybody dreams of that. The boys in Australia all dream of that.
“So to be there and see my son do that was special. It took a few takes to actually go ‘where are we? We are standing on the Adelaide Oval and 456 is his Test number and no-one can take that from him.”
Kim himself was a cricketer who played a decent level. Kim reveals that they have always talked about cricket.
Kim said, “We are a father-son team as such so we always talk about cricket. Not that I was a left-hander, I was a right-hander. I played cricket at a fairly high level. So we do know what’s right and what’s wrong.
“I have wrecked a shoulder throwing buckets and buckets of balls at him. I know what his strengths and weaknesses are and he has got better and better over the years.”
Kim was asked what he wants from his cricketer son and he had a very simple reply.
Marcus’ proud father said, “If someone said to me ‘what would you take for Marcus?’, and I would say we would love to get him off the mark and one on the pads, which Jasprit Bumrah did and I am very excited about that.
“He has been under the radar of Australia cricket for a long time. He knows how to pick his time and which ball to hit. He has shown that in the Big Bash. This is another level for him and I think he can handle that. I honestly believe that he can do it.”
Kim also revealed that Marcus was very close to his deceased grandmother who always motivated the young boy to play the game well.
Kim recalled, “She lived with us when Marcus was little fellow. Every Saturday morning she would tell Marcus that he would get 20 dollars for a hundred and on days that would happen my mother would hand him the money.
“When he was 15, in a particular season he hit 11 hundreds. My mother told him: ‘Marcus you are going to bankrupt me.’ Even when he became a first-class player for Western Australia and would make a hundred, she would put in $20 in a card and write ‘to my favourite grandson’, and put it on his bed.
“Marcus would tell her that she didn’t need to put the $20 in the card now as he was earning his pay from cricket but she would say that ‘you got to keep it as that’s the deal’. Mum passed away three years ago but yes they were very close.”
