At the fall of Ash Gardner’s wicket at Edgbaston on July 1, 2023, Grace Harris came out to bat while belting out Living on a Prayer by Bon Jovi. To defeat England in the opening Twenty20 International, Australia needed 24 runs in 19 balls. England had a chance to win when Harris pulled her opening ball, off Sarah Glenn, on to the stumps and was out for a golden duck.
“I worry about how people will perceive my smile,” says Harris, a Queenslander who is always up for a good time. “Even though I once sang when I stepped out to bat in a state game and smashed 100 runs in 80 balls, I was heavily criticised for how I batted because I was out the first ball. People have the impression that you aren’t competitive or that you don’t take cricket seriously if something goes wrong.”
An assassin with a bat who laughs andchirps, Harris is one of the uncommon kind in the cutthroat world of professional sports, where hostility is both expected and desirable. Though it’s uncommon to see her act that way in cricket or most other sports, it might be a natural interpretation of herself.
“There is a look in your eye that says…” according to a few of my teammates. “Well, I don’t know how to replicate the look in my eyes; they are what they are,” Harris exclaims, seeming amused at the perception that has been formed around her particular play style.
Nobody ever reaches the hundreds in a game or on a daily basis. You compete with your own energy levels for that particular day and set of circumstances. At times, you could be playing well, yet you might lose badly when you play a really easy game first. Beautiful!
“But would they really claim that I’m not on merely because I appeared serious if I went out singing and played a duck? It must be reciprocal.”
It’s true that chirping, jokes, and being carefree outside are what bring out the best in Harris. Finding too many supporters has been difficult, which is not unexpected given the prevailing wisdom of how sports should be played, particularly on days when performance has fallen short of expectations.
“It can be difficult at times,” she acknowledges. Sometimes all you want to do is fit in by conforming. Perhaps you believe that your place is secure if you don’t upset anyone. However, occasionally you have to be able to sleep at night. If someone thinks that’s the only way they should take sports seriously or that’s how you should play them, I would rather to know that I did it my way rather than adapt to please them and wear a serious expression.”
“I’ve played on teams where I was advised not to enjoy myself, that cricket isn’t an enjoyable sport, and that your goal is to win. I’ve undoubtedly been on teams where the philosophy has been that you must play with seriousness on the pitch and that you can just joke about and have fun off it. Even though I make a lot of effort to hide that aspect of myself when I’m in the team… I suppose I have to be serious if it means you joining the squad and you have to be serious. It’s great if they embrace the idea that I want to have fun and that they want to joke about with me because it benefits them.
“However, you can’t please everyone since individuals are different. I no longer care as much—not that I ever truly cared—but I’ve also stopped trying to manage how other people see me as I’ve grown up. You either think well of me or not. Although I accept that you don’t like me, you must give me the same freedom to be myself that I give you. We will respect each other mutually if things go that way.”
Even if cricket is becoming more popular throughout the world and the concept of “enjoying the game” is becoming more widely accepted, winning teams and top players still tend to enjoy this luxury. Interestingly, Harris’s ability to strike hard is what sets her unique as a cricket player even more than her array of talents. She may have bowled in a variety of match scenarios and batted in various places, from opener to lower middle order bat, but her potent finishing touch sets her apart in the shortest format. Her batting’s hit-or-miss nature and her “not-so-serious” body language may frequently work against her in situations like these.
“As soon as I’m very serious or as soon as I’m in a very serious environment, I’ve never really performed well,” she claims. “My personality may be a bit more laid back; I find that when I become tense, things just don’t work out for me.
“In my opinion, I perform at my best when I’m smiling and enjoying myself. I would have to hide my true self if I wanted to act serious or uptight around sports. They may both be competitive and friendly at the same time.
“It’s not like being fun means you want to lose. I might not show disappointment or not show that I’m upset about something as openly or the same as everybody else, that doesn’t mean that I’m not upset with how I’ve performed, that doesn’t mean I’m not disappointed with how we played the game. I’ve tried to stay as true to myself as possible as I can in all different environments.”
Although her ability to knock massive sixes is a major part of her hitting game, her ability to take pressure and think strategically is sometimes overlooked. Harris’s approach to batting is rather simple and heavily based on the circumstances of the game and the state of the field, despite her admission that she finds it difficult to adjust to last-minute adjustments and that she prefers role clarity while preparing. But she can make a game better. That’s what she brings to it. What we call in Australia the ‘intimidation factor’.
In terms of my personality, I try not to intimidate people outside of the field. I never want to come across as scary. To win the game, I must thus fight [between] my identity as a player and my identity as a human being. However, one thing that has definitely been challenging for me throughout my career is that every time I get up to bat, people expect me to smash sixes or to be a really aggressive batter. Have I truly failed if I wasn’t the aggressor that day, or was I just playing cricket?
“Did I perform the necessary duty that day? Perhaps the person on the other end had a turn. Or perhaps it was just an exceptionally challenging wicket to go at a respectable strike rate. And after that, I’m struggling with the idea of whether or not I performed well enough for the team to win if my job is to pursue the bowlers.”
There are however days when her playful side and her banter provide much-needed comic relief, even for the opposition, in addition to being entertaining to watch.
After being cut from the Australian team, Harris gave national selectors a harsh reminder of her six-hitting prowess in October by smashing a WBBL century with a scorching 136* that included a record 11 sixes. Mic’d up, she called for a replacement bat between a Piepa Cleary over since she sensed hers was going to give out. The Perth Scorchers pacer fired back, “What, you need it now?” and went back to the top of her bowling mark.
As if on cue, Grace laughed and launched the exact delivery for a 72-meter hit over the long-on ropes. “Nah, stuff it, I’ll still hit it,” she said. The bowler and the entire commentary panel were torn apart as the bat broke in two at the handle.
Within the intensely competitive realm of cricket, Harris endeavours to carve out a little area for lightheartedness, happiness, and humour. Why be so serious when you can be Grace Harris?
