Steve Nikitaras - a natural with a burning desire

Mark Atkinson | July 25, 2023

Steve Nikitaras was a left-arm fast bowler who represented both NSW and Western Australia.

A late starter to the game Steve possessed incredible natural talent and quickly progressed through the ranks and played 4 first-class game and 14 one day games.

It’s been quite the cricket journey for Steve and he shares some raw insights and most memorable moments

How did you get into cricket?

I was just like most kids in our time, I loved all sports. Summer was cricket and winter was league and that’s all I knew and watched on TV. I wasn’t allowed to play on weekends due to my parents being so strict and protective. However, I was blessed with a big back yard so it got a serious workout.

What are your memories of your junior cricket days? 

I don’t have any memories as I never played or competed like most. I only knew the back yard and those memories were great. Breaking windows and blaming someone else, jumping fences before the dog got the ball and we’d go all day, just played all day. It was crazy and awesome memories. For me, it was street games and that’s all I knew and that was hard enough.

Were there challenges associated with coming from a Greek background? 

Many challenges. I wasn’t allowed to play as my parents only believed in hard work. At the time it was difficult but I get it now and I’m so grateful for them. I had talent in rugby league and my eldest brother signed me up to play under 12s. The key was my parents could not find out. And for that to happen house chores had to be done. 

I had to turn the soil over in the veggie garden. So I would be up at 5 am in the dark and continue turning soil until 7.30 am when my lift arrived. I was always full of dirt however I could play and no one judged me.

I knew I had a talent in league but it was hard and difficult most of the time as I had little support. We just had to hide everything. Let’s say it was difficult yet I’m grateful as well because without all these experiences I would be empty. I’m super proud of my parents, they a real and true love to all of us. So there are no regrets but at the time there was a lot of anger. It’s life. 

When did you come to grade cricket and how did it come about? 

Cricket was only a backyard thing for me, it was something I liked but I didn’t love it. 

My passion was league and I wanted to be like Steve Rogers. I just loved watching him play. However, as I progressed into higher representative teams and could see a future it was getting harder on my body and coming home beaten up was difficult. 

Super League was happening at the time and I had the option to choose between league and cricket. I chose cricket but prior that decision I’d lost my apprenticeship as an electrician and was stranded with no apprenticeship. I then had to make another decision and it was either to move to Sydney or find another job in Wollongong as I hated the thought of travelling up and back.

I was then offered an apprenticeship to become a butcher. Yep, a butcher. 

It became the cricket connection to my journey as David Moulds was the man who mentored me through my early years of cricket. He knew something was possible early, he had 5 butcher shops and a mad cricketer.

David played for Port Kembla and when they were short one day another friend reached out and told the club about me. I was offered the job and with it I played for Port Kembla. 

In my first game in 3rd grade playing on mats, I got 9 wickets. I was out of control. The following week in 2nd Grade I took 6 wickets then I played first grade and we won the premiership and I was man of the match. It all happened very quickly. 

The next season I was picked in a representative game, it was Tooheys Cup game where several NSW players would play to promote the game in regional areas. 

Greg Matthews saw something and grabbed me and took me to Western Suburbs. It was mid-season I joined the club. His exact words were “you’re coming to the big smoke.”

Big smoke!! I had no idea what he was talking about. Anyhow that’s how I got to Grade cricket in Sydney.

Did you have any mentors or coaches who were assisted your cricket and if yes how did they help you? 

Many along the journey. From Steve and Jan Janz, Chris and Bernie O’Neil from Western Suburbs to the Maraziotis family from Penrith who took time to raise me like their son. I can’t thank them enough and it’s opportunities like this for me to share my thanks as words are often hard and I’m very grateful for everything they did to help and support me. They took care of me with accommodation and helping out with some money. I’ve never taken their support for granted let me assure you.

Also, people like league tough man and South Sydney great David Boyle was a good mentor.

There were so many lessons and mentors from coaches like Geoff Lawson, Alan Campbell, Wayne Clarke, Bruce Reid and Patrick Farhart who was not only my physio but also someone who I consoled within difficult times.

Every player I played with and against had brought value to me. But without doubt, it was Trevor Bayliss who I found to be the best captain and one bloke who at definitely got the best out of me. He just knew how to crack you and expose you. Hence his success as a coach in today’s world. He got the best out of me. 

Trevor Bayliss

What were your cricketing ambitions?

I didn’t have any, I just wanted to bowl as fast as possible and avoid life problems. The journey was a tough one and it wasn’t just playing the game but finding out who I was. I’m still trying to figure that out. 

When I finally got picked in an NSW squad, it was massive and I can honestly say it was enough. I don’t see the same value these days in players and I think players don’t appreciate it to the degree we did. Maybe I have that wrong but I doubt it.

I know in my time it was a serious achievement and you were very much respected amongst your peers in the game as they knew you thoroughly deserved it. You had to prove yourself and no one got an easy way in. 

It meant a lot for me to earn the respect from the peers you play with and against every week, it’s all I wanted. I don’t think I ever took my NSW tracksuit off, that’s how proud I was. I probably should have moved the bar higher up but I didn’t so that’s another lesson for life. Don’t accept what you have as being enough, you limit yourself of more. 

Describe the circumstances the led to your Sheffield Shield selection for NSW? 

I left Western Suburbs as I was never happy. I just hated being around those guys. Chirpy, cocky and annoying. They would never stop. Players like Paul Ryan, Peter Burkart and Mike Swan used to piss me off yet they also knew and wanted more from me so I was like a serious frustration to them. 

I couldn’t handle criticism and they knew I had more to offer but I wasn’t ready to listen or take advice. 

I came up from 4th grade at the start and then second grade and then played some first grade but then the club was exposed to some kind of riff, I wasn’t involved and we had lost a host quality first-graders and then many of the new players weren’t quite ready to be first graders.

However, we got through that year and the next season Paul Ryan came back to the Club. I remember him asking me one day, “Do you ever go for a run, like… do you train? “

I told him I don’t. I was up at 5am, finishing work at 5pm and training in Sydney was insane for me. He goes “Could you imagine if you did 10 minutes a day, what improvement you would have? “

I wasn’t interested. I just wanted out and I left thinking I’m over people pushing me. It didn’t have anything to do with them I just couldn’t handle the truth. 

So I went to Penrith. My first year with Penrith was terrible as I had over trained with weights and I was heavy and slow. More ready to pack into a scrum than bowl quick. It was a bad first year and I was dropped and reinstated back to first grade for the last game against Parramatta at Old Kings. I still hate the place.

Trevor Bayliss humiliated me in front of my teammates. I will never forget it. Here we go again but this time in front of my peers, the same message the boys at Western Suburbs were politely trying help me with it.

Fuck it!!! It was coming and again I was confronted with my biggest fear, failure. 

Playing the last game of the year against Parramatta and we won on the first innings but lost outright. Embarrassing, but what was bad, I didn’t even get a bowl in the whole match. I felt terrible. 

At the end of the game in those small dressing rooms, TB was an angry man most of the times in those days and he had to let go at someone and it was my turn so he throws his NSW Baggy Blue at me and goes you will never wear one or get one! 

Well, he could’ve thrown it to 8 others and his statement would have been correct but at me?

Fuck you I say. But here we go again back to those Wests days this time in front of the team. 

I remember looking at the cap and feeling the pain yet my ego was ready to charge at him but he like all those other guys who were strong enough to take me on, actually did care but this one did crack me and I needed it to be that deep otherwise I’m another cricket tragic. I couldn’t hide, he was right but at the moment, I wasn’t about to believe it. 

However calm I looked I was very close to rage. What saved the situation was not another word was spoken. I’m like do I get up and put this guy to sleep or deeply feel his anger like others before him and walk away.

So I picked up his baggy blue which landed on my kit and frisbee throw it back to him. The room was in silence not knowing what I was about to do and I’m not sure what everyone was thinking but I do remember people were worried. 

I picked up my kit and walked out slowly and drove home. I was done. But not for long. 

My off season started the next day and I ran hills every day until I retired. I killed myself on good and bad days and each day I had the memory of that room burning inside.

I returned to Penrith and was on fire. I hated my teammates and everyone in my way, especially TB.

I, along with Stuart Karpinnen became the most potent combination in Sydney Grade cricket. We also had good back up with Paul Goldsmith. Karps would be in my ear at mid-on every time letting me know “fuck TB and that batsmen of he has come out with no lid or doesn’t rate me” etc he would just fire me up. He seriously had me going crazy. 

I played several NSW 2ndXI games that year and we didn’t lose one. Playing for NSW was an honour. It was a serious honour to make the team. Dick Guy was our team manager for years and he instilled that baggy blue spirit and he was a savage with it. It was all about winning!

He had that pride about him every time he raised that flag before we played and made it clear we are not here to lose. That was clear and we never lost. It was a privilege.

The following year I was picked in City vs Country game and I ran through the city side and was picked to play in a one day game against WA, It was the best day of my life. Another achievement and another one deserved. I had worked hard. 

Stuart Karppinen as Australian Strength and Conditioning Coach in 2008

What do you remember about your first-class debut? 

Amazing and again overwhelming. Slater, Taylor Waugh, Waugh, Bevan and list goes on. The boys had just returned from winning the Frank Worrell Trophy in the West Indies and the famous confrontation with Steve Waugh and Curtly Ambrose and here I was picked in the first shield game of the year with these greats. For me, I had achieved something special by making the best team in the state and the country. I was happy I took 3 for 76 and was left out of the next game until the following year. 

What were the challenges of playing first-class cricket and how did you deal with them? 

I’d struggled with belief and insecurities from a young age and it didn’t leave me. The environment in NSW was overwhelming and I was a country kid struggling with independence and it was tough. 

My best cricket was played in 2ndXI games where I was way more relaxed. I felt grade cricket was easy and even easier playing 2ndXI cricket. I was comfortable with the players and I knew I belonged. I didn’t take the feeling of ease or confidence into the next level. Things started shifting and NSW was making changes the following year with Geoff Lawson getting pushed out of the coaching position and Steve Small becoming head coach with John Benaud the head selector.

I was looking to change as TB was retiring and host of players like Karpinnen, Jason Arnberger, and Paul Maraziotis were leaving Penrith and I wanted to get closer to the SCG. 

I decide to move and play with Sydney University but it came at a price. Sydney Uni was about to get kicked out of the competition so the club went after me and Rodney Davison and secured our services and they also became the first club to employ a full-time head coach. They were serious, they were not to get kicked out or merge and they’ve been very successful since and it started back then. 

Before the move though I was confronted by head coach and head selector at the time about my move to Sydney Uni and leaving Penrith. I was told it would not be a good career move.

That year I played a host of 2ndXI games and did well and Sydney Uni made the one-day finals, but I never played for NSW again.

What prompted your move to Western Australia?

I had previously had offers from Dennis Lillee to go to Western Australia but I was comfortable in Sydney. I was good here but that same offer came again and this time I took it.

Western Australia was amazing and for me, I felt at home. Small city, walking distance to training and host of young players trying to make it. The environment was different and for me it was perfect.

I was part of a winning Mercantile Mutual One Day Final in 1999/2000 and again I was overwhelmed. Life was good.

When I look back I was disappointed with my career in NSW. I felt I let them down. I had many people like Trevor Bayliss who could see my talent yet I had fear. Alan Campbell from NSW also had a strong belief in me was also let down but to be honest it wasn’t anything to do with the system it was simply me not able to adapt from the country to city.

Things are different now with country players being more accepted into grade and state pathways. The support is amazing. I don’t blame anyone it was just different and it has to be earned. 

What are your recollections of your time in the west? 

Perth was like living in Wollongong. The guys had a hard work ethic and any ego wasn’t allowed. It was a very different lifestyle and one that suited me as it was very much country living.

I was surrounded by amazing people like Katich, Hussey. Julian, Angel, Campbell, Langer, Matt Nicholson, Stuart Karpinnen who joined me from Penrith and other great players like Moody, Gilchrist and Martyn. Up and coming players like Rogers, Voges, Harvey, Baker, Dighton and North. It was an amazing time. It just suited me.

What do you think looking back on your first-class career? 

Disappointed but happy. I was a country kid from Wollongong with not a lot happening. I had strict parents and lived a life of insecurities. Along the way, many people shaped me and made me a better person. I can look back and be disappointed with my achievements and I was but I let that go a long time ago. Cricket has given me more to life then stats. It’s taught me how to survive and get back up and I can tell you without those lessons I’m not sure I would be here today. 

You bowled fast. 

I loved bowling quick. I hated every batsman.

What preparation went into your game?  

I just did what I hated. I just ran hills and stretched 24/7 with lots of speed work. I didn’t want to let people down again. 

Who were the teammates you particularly admired?

Many to choose from but watching people like Brad Hogg, Mike Hussey and Simon Katich just like no other. Hogg was, in particular, a bloke who never stopped. I remember he would not even get a bowl for WA yet he would be the first at training bowling to Hussey and Katich for hours before training started.

Then he would bowl to Ryan Campbell and Campo would put into the schools to get rid of him. He would then run out of the nets with that stupid tongue hanging out to get the ball and come back and do it all again. Then Gilly would be batting and the same thing would happen. No one gets his effort but I’ve seen that guy never give up. Little like big Jo Angel, serious effort. 

?What would you do if you were running Australian Cricket?  

I would get out of the office go and see every country cricket club and see what the hell is happening. I would get ex-players coaching under 10s and tell parents to sit and watch and not read a textbook or a call yourself a coach. 

Cricket is struggling with the early coaching, not the pathways. By the time they reach the pathways it’s almost too late and it’s very hard to retrain techniques, especially bowlers. 

We make the changes after several back stress fractures. We can avoid them with better body mechanics and self-development as the body matures. Same with the batsman.

What advice would you give to yourself as an 18-year-old? 

Train hard but smart. Everything you do should be specific to what you do in a game. Less long distance and more sprints for example.