Steve O’Keefe’s unceremonious axing - a potentially fatal error that demands self-introspection
1136 days ago, Pune was witness to what was the single greatest bowling performance by an overseas spinner on Indian soil. On a minefield that was prepared to rattle and dismantle the visitors, Steve O’Keefe turned the tide to hand India just their second defeat on home soil in over 13 years.
Never in the then 140-year history of Australian cricket had such performance been witnessed, especially by a spinner in the sub-continent. Even the best Shane Warne could manage was an 11-fer and that, too, was against a considerably weak Pakistan side back in 2002. This performance by O’Keefe, on the other hand, came against an Indian side at the absolute peak of its powers, one that comprised the best batsmen in the world. And after some 60 odd Test matches hitchhiking on Nathan Lyon, first the first time since the days of Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill, it felt like Australia had finally found formidable spin twins.
O’Keefe’s coming of age not only gave hope that someone equally skilled could fill in for Lyon should he miss out for one reason or another, but it also signalled the start of a potential new era for Australia, one where they could start conquering sub-continent land. Three years on, they are back to square one, with the once Adelaide Oval groundsman being the last - and the only man standing. On Sunday, Steve O’Keefe announced his retirement from first-class cricket after New South Wales failed to offer him a contract, having played just four Tests since his Pune heroics.
There are many reasons why O’Keefe only ended up playing four more Tests for Australia post-Pune 2017, but his behaviour and lack of discipline off the field takes the cake. In April 2017, right after the India tour, he was fined $20,000 by CA and suspended from the entire domestic one-day tournament for making "highly inappropriate comments" to a female cricketer while drunk at the Cricket NSW end-of-season awards function. There have been multiple other instances where the left-arm spinner crossed the line and, as admitted by himself, he was ‘ashamed’ of the way he behaved. That Australia played only two more Tests in the sub-continent post-2017 also meant that O’Keefe’s chances were limited, given Lyon was the first choice and by some distance.
But the national side aside, given New South Wales (NSW) have hardly had any issues with O’Keefe’s off-field behaviour - he had been a regular feature across all three formats for them in the past three seasons - the decision to not offer him a contract comes off as a shock and is also borderline baffling. If we strictly stick to cricketing grounds, O’Keefe has been nothing but an absolute champion for the Blues. In each of the last five seasons, O’Keefe has been NSW’s highest wicket-taking spinner - and by some distance - and only once in these five years has he averaged over 28.
In fact, in the recently-concluded curtailed Sheffield Shield season, O’Keefe, with 16 wickets to his name at an average of 22, was the highest wicket-taking spinner in the entirety of the country and served as the perfect foil for the Blues’ pace trio of Conway, Copeland and Abbott. Taking into account the scarcity of spinners in the state and the proficiency that O’Keefe has consistently shown with the ball, the decision to not offer the left-arm spinner a contract seems like a harsh and rash not-so-well thought of decision that has a lot of eeriness attached to it.
But the decision to not offer O’Keefe a state contract - the eventuality of which has resulted in him quitting first-class cricket - affects more than New South Wales themselves; it also has dire consequences for the national side. Australia’s estranged relationship with O’Keefe - due to his off-field behaviour - has meant that they have been in the hunt for an able back-up Lyon for the past three years, a quest that, thus far, has been highly unsuccessful. Despite falling out with O’Keefe, the management, all this while, knew that should the need arise, they could, at any point of time, go back to him. His subsequent retirement from first-class cricket means that the option is now out of the window.
What this, in turn, means now is that they have no option but to either put their blind trust on Mitchell Swepson who, despite the promise he’s shown in the last two years, is still unproven and untested or resort back to the left-armers Ashton Agar and Jon Holland, both of who did not inspire confidence with the ball in whites. Both are far from ideal scenarios for the team, but the unceremonious axing of O’Keefe means that this is what they are now left with.
And perhaps, if and when the selectors introspect, this will be their biggest takeaway - the failure to give importance to spin and groom spinners while they had the luxury of having two senior spinners co-existing at the same time. Over the course of the last three years, the failure of young spinners to make strides at the Shield level has been staggering; in the 2019/20 season, each of the top 20 wicket-takers were fast bowlers and, ironically, the highest wicket-taking spinner was none other than Steve O’Keefe. As attested by O’Keefe himself, the only way for Australia to move forward in the spin department and ensure more spinners come through the ranks is by encouraging more turning wickets to assist the slower bowlers but that, sadly, looks like a distant dream.
"We promote the Dukes ball. In the game at the moment you could pick four quicks and if you had to pick an allrounder you could pick a medium pacer and still do well - you'd win with that team, with no spinner, which to me is a shock. If we really want to win a series in India, which is the final frontier, then we have to start providing at home," he said after his final game.
The ineptness of Zampa and Agar with the red-ball, the decline of Jon Holland and the inability of Lloyd Pope to push on to the next level, coupled with the retirement of O’Keefe mean that Australia are now left with no option but to throw Swepson into the mix. Time will only tell if the leggie is ready and equipped enough to face the rigours of Test cricket, but with about 18 months to go before the tour India - aka the final frontier - Australia, with the axing of O’Keefe, have certainly shot themselves in the foot and put themselves in a precarious position. O’Keefe, though, can leave with his head held high, knowing he’ll be remembered in the years to come, for that spell in Pune is not getting eclipsed anytime soon.