It happened without fanfare or ceremony. A quiet alert on the Cricket Australia app popped up with the news of Meg Lanning’s international retirement and immediately tributes began flowing in. The announcement, which came after almost 10 years in the captaincy role, sent shock waves around the cricketing world.
However, the writing has been on the wall for some time, with Lanning taking two breaks in recent times – one for mental health reasons in 2022, followed by another for undisclosed medical reasons in 2023. It is unlikely the public will ever know the full story behind either of these breaks or indeed Lanning’s retirement. She is an intensely private person – an increasing rarity in the social media age – and these reasons are likely to be kept close to her chest, shared only with her nearest and dearest.
But in the shock of the sudden announcement and the piecing together of the reasons why, what should not be forgotten is the legacy that Lanning has built and leaves to the game. She burst on to the scene as a teenager, making her debut for Victoria in the Women’s National Cricket League at just 16 years old, before becoming the youngest player to score a century for Australia in her second one day international when she was 18. At 21, she was elevated to the captaincy – despite having never captained a team at any level before.
The legend of Lanning’s captaincy is tied up in the incredible success of the Australian team in recent times, but few remember the teething problems she encountered early on. The losses at the 2016 T20 World Cup and the 2017 ODI World Cup demonstrated the struggles that plagued a young captain trying to make the role her own and – along with the shoulder injury that troubled her throughout 2017 – it did not always appear that she was headed for a fairytale ending.
Those bumps in the road did not deter her and during a time out of the game to recover from injury, she took her leadership capabilities to new heights. Earlier on in her captaincy, she had responded to feedback from the playing group that they wanted her to spend more time around the team, rather than being hidden away with the coaching staff. Her injury allowed her to take a further step back and understand the team from an outside perspective, observing the dynamics and figuring out how her leadership fit within them.
When Lanning returned, it was as a far more mature and complete captain, and the success of the team from that time on reflects her growth. While some may seek to push those World Cup losses to the background when reminiscing about Lanning’s career and captaincy, in fact they were important foundation stones of her later success. No longer was winning major tournaments simply a formality. Those losses were lessons in the extra effort it takes to consistently perform on the world stage. Since then, it has been clear that winning means more to Lanning now, that no stone is to be left unturned in the pursuit of success. She has played – and led – with a determination that has been unmatched in world cricket and the results have followed.
Since her return from that shoulder injury, she has filled Australia’s trophy cabinet with wins in every major tournament that has been played. T20 World Cup wins in 2018, 2020 and 2023, an ODI World Cup win in 2022, followed by a gold medal in women’s cricket’s first appearance at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. She has not so much tasted success, as feasted on it.
In announcing her international retirement, Lanning reflected on those many victories, full of emotion.
“I’ve achieved so much within the game and I’ve been lucky enough to have such a successful career and be part of very successful teams and I guess I feel like now I’ve got nothing left to achieve on the international stage,” she said. “I no longer have the spark or the motivation to do what needs to happen at this level so, for me, it’s time to move on.”
When a career is defined by success as much as Lanning’s has been, it is hardly surprising that it eventually becomes unsustainable. Those early hurdles gave her purpose, providing the determination required to conquer the world. With the path now clear of obstacles, she has done her job and is ready to pass the baton.
Lanning’s departure marks the beginning of a changing of the guard. For so long she, along with Alyssa Healy and Ellyse Perry, has been seen as the face of women’s cricket. While she will be sorely missed, her legacy will live on in the young talent that will step up to take her place and the indelible mark she has left on Australian cricket.
