FAMOUS DAD TO CHEER ON NZ’S BIG HOPE
THE eyes of the world will be on Daryl Mitchell at the SCG on Wednesday night, but there was a time when the eyes of his famous father were supposed to be somewhere else.
Former All Blacks coach John Mitchell was Eddie Jones’ assistant at England rugby and told the boss he would be going to watch his son play county cricket for Middlesex on a scheduled day off back in 2021.
“No, you’re not,” was the alleged reply from Jones.
Mitchell went anyway, and he quit the England coaching staff a couple of months later.
During his own high profile head coaching career, John Mitchell’s family sacrificed plenty following him around the globe, with Daryl spending a chunk of his schooling in Perth during dad’s time at Western Force.
But John Mitchell, who has decided the time has come to return the favour, will be watching on Wednesday night when Mitchell junior tries to take down Pakistan’s lethal attack in a semi-final that could be New Zealand’s gateway to World Cup redemption after heartbreaks in 2021, 2019 and 2015.
Even Eddie came around and was the first to reach out to his former assistant when the brilliant all-format batsman Daryl Mitchell scored a career-defining Test century against England at Lord’s this year.
“That was all more the media (making a fuss). Dad and Eddie are good friends and get on really well,” Daryl Mitchell said.
“I think all my family – mum, dad and my sister, they’ve always supported me to try and achieve my dreams. It’s cool they’ve been able to come and watch some pretty cool moments in my life.”
Mitchell is a key man for New Zealand in Wednesday night’s semi-final as a middleorder weapon capable of chasing down imposing targets in clutch situations without blinking.
How much of the bigmoment DNA has he inherited from a childhood spent in All Blacks dressing rooms?
“For me it was just normal. My dad went to work and that’s what I was used to. I was lucky to be able to go to All Blacks trainings and rub shoulders and watch how guys prepare and go about things that I guess normal kids don’t get the opportunity to do,” said Mitchell. “I spent a lot of time around trainings and teams and sports and maybe some of that has rubbed off.”