Bins, wins and verbals: Meet the real Shelley Nitschke

Ask anyone in the current Australian team to describe Shelley Nitschke, and it is almost guaranteed 'laidback' will be one of the first descriptors employed.

Approachable, caring and empathetic are other common refrains from those who once played alongside the legendary allrounder, and now play under her in her role as interim Australia head coach.

Watching the calmness with which Nitschke is marshalling the national side in Birmingham at the Commonwealth Games, those sentiments ring true.

As such, it is somewhat difficult to reconcile this Nitschke with the hilarious tales of the white-line fever that once possessed the South Australian when she stepped onto the field.

There's the time she tossed her bat in the bin after getting out during a game in Darwin in 2007.

And that time a few years later when she offered England a particularly candid piece of her mind, after they dared to sledge a teenage Meg Lanning on debut.

It was that competitive spirit that propelled Nitschke's remarkable rise from the obscurity of club cricket in Katherine to a debut in the national side at age 28.

As a coach, she no longer wears that aspect of her personality on her sleeve; but Nitschke's straight-talking approach remains, and the traits that so endeared the allrounder to her former teammates have equally won the respect of the current side.

***

Nitschke's list of accolades is extensive, particularly given the late bloomer's time at the highest level lasted all of six years.

A four-time Belinda Clark Award winner, 2010 ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year and a two-time World Cup champion, she played 122 internationals across all formats, capturing 153 wickets with her left-arm spin and scoring 3,118 runs.

But if not for the failure of a local softball competition in the Northern Territory outback at the start of this century, Nitschke may never have played cricket for her country at all.

Growing up in South Australia, Nitschke followed a typical path into cricket, roped in as she was through her father and brother.

"I used to hang out at my brother's training sessions because Dad was coaching, so I was just hanging around waiting to get a ride home … and then I thought it was easier to join in," Nitschke told cricket.com.au.

"One thing led to another, they needed some more players, and so I started playing under-16s when I was about 11."

But when Nitschke grew too old for junior cricket, she was forced to make a choice; she also played softball, and the games clashed with senior men's cricket.

Softball was the winner, and a sport Nitschke continued to pursue during her university days in Adelaide.

"It wasn't until I was about 22 that I took up cricket again, when I moved up to Katherine in the Northern Territory," she said. "Their softball competition had just folded, so I started playing cricket up there instead and it reignited my love of the game ... and I guess the rest is history."

Remarkably, inside two years after her accidental cricketing comeback, a 23-year-old Nitschke made her Women's National Cricket League debut, quickly earning a reputation as a fierce competitor.

Four years later, just a week after her 28th birthday, a national call-up followed.

"I actually think if I'd spent a bit longer out of the game, I might have left it too late," she said. "I fell out of it from 16 to 22 ... if there'd been another couple of years on top of that, it might have been a bit too late."

***

Nitschke's first tour took her to India in late 2004. She had arrived in one of the all-time great Australian sides, where her teammates included Belinda Clark, Cathryn Fitzpatrick, Karen Rolton, Alex Blackwell and Mel Jones.

Fitzpatrick presented her ODI cap in Mysore and Nitschke grabbed a wicket on debut – her only one for the tour.

Despite the lean results, a fire had been lit. Nitschke resolved to make her next chance count.

"Off the field, the whole touring experience, and just being part of that environment, I knew that's what I wanted, that's where I wanted to be and what I wanted to do," she said.

"On the field, (I was) not so successful. After that tour, I said to myself, 'If this is it, then that's OK. But if this is not it, then I'm not going to let that happen again – I'm going to make sure I'm doing everything I can to put my best foot forward and perform my best'.

"Luckily, the selectors stuck with me for a little bit longer."

Nitschke's fears were unwarranted. The selectors and her captain Clark were well aware of the talent they had in the late-blooming South Australian, and they were prepared to give her time to realise it.

One of Clark's most vivid memories of Nitschke's arrival into the Australian set-up are from a pre-tour training camp in Adelaide ahead of that Indian debut.

The squad regulars knew only too well of the gruelling fitness session that awaited them and thus had arrived appropriately attired.

"Shell turned up, and she had tracksuit pants on – and I just remember thinking, What are you doing? We're going to be running," Clark told cricket.com.au.

"Everyone else had shorts on, because they knew we were about to get absolutely nailed … and I think Shell's tracksuit pants got heavier and heavier because it was raining at the time too.

"She never wore tracksuit pants again. But that's my first memory of her, that she had probably no idea what she was stepping into, coming into the national set-up.

"My other early memory of Shell is (the tour of India) … she would have played every game, but I think she only got one wicket.

"I reckon at times I was having to convince her that it was a good time for her to bowl.

"She was super nervous and probably felt like she was out of her depth. She wasn't, but she thought she was."

Nitschke kept her spot in the squad for the 2005 World Cup in South Africa and after breaking into the XI for Australia's third group stage match against West Indies, she remained in the side for the rest of the tournament, taking 11 wickets at an average of eight, including the prized scalp of India skipper Mithali Raj for six as Australia triumphed in the final.

A Test debut followed that August in the United Kingdom, before Nitschke unleashed one of the great ODI bowling performances at Kidderminster, tearing through England with 7-24.

It remained the best one-day bowling display by an Australian woman until Ellyse Perry's 7-22 against England in Canterbury in 2019.

"It takes different people different amounts of time to get comfortable in a team, and believe that they belong there," Clark explained. "I think Shell was a classic example of someone who started the game late, came into the team late, and probably just had never contemplated that this was the path she was going to take.

"She took time to convince herself she was in the right spot. Everyone else could see the talent and the potential, but I think Shell doubted herself for a little while. But once she got rolling, absolutely, she knew she belonged."

As the likes of Clark, Rolton and Melissa Bulow retired from the Australian side, Nitschke steadily worked her way from the tail-end to the top-order.

She was promoted to opener during a 2006-07 quadrangular in India, where her long-awaited first half-century came against New Zealand, and she remained there for the rest of her career.

***

It was towards the back-end of her international days that Nitschke started playing alongside the precociously talented kids who are the current-day superstars of the Australian team.

Each have their own recollections of the allrounder, but a theme does emerge.

"It's probably not too fair on her, and it's quite unique to the rest of her character, but she was pretty fond of a bit of a tantrum when she got out," Ellyse Perry told cricket.com.au. 

"I remember the first game that I was a part of up in Darwin (in 2007), she put her bat in the rubbish bin after she got out.

"And I didn't know many of the players too well, so that was sort of a lasting impression.

"But she's just one of those players that is mates with everyone, has a great connection with everyone in the group, and was just such a nice person to have around as well as player.

"Super competitive, obviously, and I think she's brought a lot of that across to her coaching, minus the tantrums."

Lanning recalls Nitschke's fiery response when England decided they would try to get in the head of her then-teenage opening partner on debut.

"Shelley was right there behind me," she grins. "I wasn't cool enough to say anything back (to the England players), but she told them where to go and they were pretty quiet after that.

"That was pretty cool at the start of my career, to have Shell there looking after me."

And Alyssa Healy recalls: "I won't lie, I was a little bit scared of Shell when I first came in – more so because I played against her a bit in domestic cricket and she got me out for fun and told me where to go as a young, smartarse of a debutant.

"But once I got in the team and got to know her a little bit more, she's just a really amazing person and a really beautiful human.

"The beauty of Shell was you could quite literally just throw her the ball at any moment and she would make something happen. That was pretty incredible."

Nitschke laughs ruefully when asked about her on-field persona, but admits it was most likely a critical factor in why she was so successful.

"One of my old coaches, Mark Sorell, used to always tell me that I just love being in the contest," she said. "When the chips were down, that was when I was at my best."

In 2011, at the top of her game as the world's top-ranked allrounder, Nitschke abruptly called it quits. At 34, she decided it was time for the next phase of life – one that did not involve cricket.

"I certainly wasn't a spring chicken," she said. "I felt like I'd had a really good run of it and I always wanted to go out on my terms and when I was reasonably on top of my game.

"'Fitzy' (Fitzpatrick) always used to tell me, 'I reckon you got the most out of yourself'. So I don't know if that's a compliment or not. Maybe she's telling me I'm not that naturally gifted but I used to work hard, so I was successful."

***

Coaching was never in the plan for Nitschke, but it did not take long for cricket to creep back into her life following her 2011 retirement.

She started working as a development officer in regional South Australia, before an opportunity presented itself in high performance at the SACA.

"One thing led to another," Nitschke said. "Part of the (development officer) role that I really enjoyed was coaching the underage representative teams.

"So when the opportunity came up in the high-performance department at the SACA ... and then when I got into (the assistant) role with the Australian team, it was like, Yeah, high performance is where I really want to be."

Nitschke also surprised many – herself included – when she came out of retirement for the inaugural season of the WBBL in 2015-16.

She took some convincing from then-Adelaide Strikers coach Andrea McCauley, who eventually talked her into a playing-coaching role, so she could lend her considerable expertise on-field in the fledgling competition.

"I was like, 'Nah, I don't think so'," Nitschke grinned. "Anyway, she talked me into it."

At the same time, her coaching career was on the rise; she mentored a Cricket Australia XI side with Ryan Harris at the Under-19 National Championships, while opportunities also arose with Australia's development side, then known as the Shooting Stars.

Her first tour with the senior side was an ODI and T20 trip to India in March 2018. It came shortly after she had been appointed in a new full-time assistant role for the women's team, which had also required a move from Adelaide to Brisbane.

"Again (like her playing career), it was a bit of a slow burn," said Clark, who played an influential role in Nitschke's coaching journey as Cricket Australia's then senior manager of team performance.

"She'd done mainly development work so I knew that she could connect with people and influence the decisions that kids were making about taking up the game and working with volunteers, and I think that grounding was really valuable to her.

"Then bit by bit, she started to do more work in the high-performance set-up and started to show an aptitude for coaching.

"People who can connect, build strong relationships, help other people and focus on others – not themselves – they're the people that end up being really good coaches, and Shell always had those qualities."

***

Beth Mooney was finding her feet in the Australian team when Nitschke first took on the assistant role for their 2018 tour to India.

In the intervening years, through their time together in the national setup and also with the Perth Scorchers, they have forged a close bond based on trust and mutual respect.

Nitschke credits Mooney's direct approach for helping her own development as a mentor through that period.

And when the left-hander reflects on her mentor's growth across the past four years, there are echoes of Nitschke's early days as an international player.

"I think she's grown a lot in confidence since that initial tour in 2018," Mooney told cricket.com.au. "Obviously she's got a lot of knowledge and maybe early on she didn't deliver it as much as she perhaps could have, and now she understands the impact that she has with the words she says and the insight she has.

"That's been a great evolution of hers, and probably just trusting her gut a bit more as well.

"We just have this understanding of each other and (give each other) 'honesty with care' as well.

"I think it can be a tough gig sometimes, playing at the elite level, but to have a coach that you feel respects you and you respect them makes it a lot easier, but also means you're able to have some tough conversations at times."

The white-line fever stayed out on the field when Nitschke retired, and there is certainly no suggestion there are any bats being binned in Birmingham.

But Nitschke's ability to be both calm and no-nonsense is resonating with the current squad, including Ashleigh Gardner, who has worked closely with the former spinner.

"She's a pretty laidback character, but she's also a straight shooter at the same time," Gardner said.

"You always know where you stand with Shell, and she's always honest.

"I actually don't mind when people tell me straight down the line rather than beating around the bush with things.

"And I think that's the best thing about her – she'll tell you how it is. Sometimes you like to hear it, but sometimes you don't.

"But the best thing about her coaching is that it's always coming from a good place, so you know it's going to make you better down the line."