“We broke out here at the first catch,” Calvin Aean, trustee of the nearby Kingston Twin Oval, where Webster played his junior cricket, reported from the Snug Tavern bar.

“But the second attempt to get rid of Virat (Kohli) triggered a great reaction as no one seemed to like him for the last few weeks. So that was very special.

“There are a lot of old boys here, his old team-mates and his old man’s friends, and we kept the bar busy from the first ball. It’s a very special time.”

Webster felt the love from home and abroad. His phone broke in the 24 hours before his baggy green presentation by Mark Waugh.

“Coming from a small town in Tasmania and representing the country, there weren’t too many (Tasmanians) on the trip,” Webster said.

“I’m really proud to be one of those few. I’m a Tasmanian through and through, so it makes me really proud to be able to put on a show for them, spread the word and do what I can for the state.”

As the folks at Snug keep the home fires burning, Rod and Tina Webster take a breather after a crazy 24-hour scramble to see their youngest’s Test debut. Not surprisingly, it was Mitch Marsh who told Webster he would replace the West Australian, delivering the news of his own demise with “a big nod, a big grin and ‘You’re in.'”

After a Facebook call for a dog sitter went viral, dogs Eddie and Frank were placed in the care of relatives. Flights from Hobart to Sydney were found; Accommodation too.

Older brother Jordan, currently living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was trying to make his own haphazard run across the Pacific when news of his sibling’s debut arrived at 10am AEDT on Thursday.

But at last check, Jordan was settling for a seedy online stream in the cosmopolitan South American hub. In one ear was certainly half of Australian cricket’s new favorite earrings.

The other shines brightly in the SCG center. Memories are brought back of Shane Warne, Colin ‘Funky’ Miller and young Michael Clarke, a heady band of loud, occasionally raunchy local favorites who wear earrings in the gentlemanly department.

Webster is anything but. Although the theory at Snug Tavern, according to Aean, is that “the earring may have arrived overseas after his recent T20 contracts.”

“Perhaps the bigger the contract, the bigger the diamond?”

The truth is far healthier and better for them.

Load

A humble journeyman of Australian cricket, Webster has been plying his trade in the state arena for more than a decade. Now 31, he has found consistency in his hitting and added seamers to his off-spin, marking a reversal from Miller’s own late-blooming Test career.

A place on the next subcontinent tour to Sri Lanka at the end of the month is on the horizon given the additional conditions Beau now offers. Especially after an eye-catching first day as an Australian Test cricketer, with all the trimmings.

“His mother probably bought a pair of earrings about a year ago,” explains Rod Webster. “And she gave one to Beau and one to his older brother. I think they both wear them just out of respect for their mother. I wouldn’t say there’s much to Beau, that might be his only thing.”