Meg Lanning’s time away from the sport provided her a chance to feel normal, and even though she isn’t setting a time limit on how long her career might last as she resumes playing international cricket, she is inspired by what she can still do in the sport.
After Australia won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in August, completing a Grand Slam of victories that also included the Ashes, the ODI World Cup, and the 2020 T20 World Cup, Lanning retired from the sport.
Meg Lanning’s cafe work
Ahead of the series against Pakistan, which starts in Brisbane on Monday and leads into the T20 World Cup in South Africa, she took some time off to travel and worked in a café, “making coffee and washing dishes.”
She then returned to action for Victoria earlier this month.
Initially, she wasn’t really sure how things would turn out at first as she claimed. She merely desired to disconnect from cricket, travel for a short period of time, and give herself some alone time to reflect and determine her next destination.
Lanning stated, “It was quite obvious that I still wanted to play cricket and enjoyed the sport; I just needed some time to feel normal and have a little less rigidity around what I was doing. After doing that, I feel incredibly revived and prepared to go.
“I feel like I still have a lot of time left in the game, both for myself and for the team. I don’t know what the future holds, but I would definitely like to continue playing for as long as I can.”
Lanning took over as captain of Australia at the age of 21, knew she needed to get away from the very controlled and routine-driven nature of the professional sport, and she relished the pace that came with serving lattes and flat whites, which was decidedly different.
She then added, “I thought it was incredibly amazing to just go in, not knowing how the day would go—it might be crowded or quiet—and strike up different discussions with the people. a tad bit more latitude, a tad less structure, a tad more going with the flow, and a tad less worrying about things.
“I accomplished that while working at the café, and I really enjoyed it.”
While Lanning had not set the T20 World Cup title defense as a specific goal for her comeback, it had become her focus after she had made the decision to keep playing and serving as captain late last year. She scored 29 and 61 runs in two WNCL matches for Victoria, and she will now play in three ODIs and three T20Is over the course of the remaining week.
Here are more stories related to cricket.
Whirlwind Burl knock wins T20 series for Zimbabwe over Ireland