📍Black Rock, Melbourne, Victoria 3193, Australia
1969 – 1988“I grew up in Black Rock, a bayside suburb of Melbourne, and the beaches and backyards of Black Rock, Hampton and Brighton were my world. My dad, Keith, and mum, Brigitte, were great supporters of everything my brother Jason and I did. Our backyard Test matches were fierce, and I was always trying to turn the ball as far as I could, copying the Pakistani leg-spinner Abdul Qadir, whom I loved to watch on television. I was a good all-round sportsman, and I won a sports scholarship to Mentone Grammar, where I captained the cricket team. Aussie rules football was just as important to me as cricket; I played junior football for St Kilda's under-19s and even one game in the reserves before they let me go in 1988. That was a turning point. I gave cricket my full attention, went to the Australian Cricket Academy in Adelaide, and there met Terry Jenner, a former Test leg-spinner who became my mentor and friend and showed me how to think like a bowler. In 1992 I made my Test debut, and in 1993 my first ball in an Ashes Test, to Mike Gatting, became known as the Ball of the Century. I took more than seven hundred Test wickets and helped bring leg-spin back to life. I loved a laugh, a pie and a beer, and never pretended to be anything other than a Melbourne bayside boy. The Great Southern Stand at the MCG now carries my name, and a statue of me bowling stands outside, in the city where it all started.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today