Meg Lanning is entering the 12th edition of the Women’s Big Bash League with the calm of a player who has stepped away from year-round commitments, but with the competitive edge of someone who still believes her best cricket is ahead, having retired from international cricket on 10th November 2023 at the age of 31.
As Melbourne Stars prepare for WBBL 12, running from 29th October to 5th December 2026, the former legendary Australian skipper has returned to lead the club for a third stint, this time as a freelance T20 specialist determined to dominate the competition once again.
Lanning’s return to the Stars captaincy carries both history and symbolism. She was the franchise’s inaugural skipper in WBBL 01 and WBBL 02, before later switching to Perth Scorchers for three seasons. Now, after Annabel Sutherland stepped down following two seasons in charge, Lanning resumes the role for the first time since retiring from international cricket in 2023. Yet the 34-year-old insists the version of herself returning to the dugout is more settled, more adaptable and more willing to trust those around her. “I think I’m a little bit more relaxed, happy to go with the flow a little bit more,” Lanning said. “I probably was a bit stuck in my ways back when I was doing it a few years ago.”
That maturity has been shaped by a deliberately different cricketing life. For the first time since debuting for Australia as an 18-year-old in 2010, Lanning has chosen not to hold an annual state contract. Instead, she has embraced the freedom of T20 cricket across the world, featuring for Lancashire in English county cricket, reuniting with former Australia coach Matthew Mott at the rebranded Manchester Super Giants in The Hundred, and then playing for Jamaica in the Women’s Caribbean Premier League in Barbados.
“It’s given me the freedom to play in different tournaments throughout the world,” Lanning told cricket.com.au. “I went over and played the CPL, which I hadn’t been able to play before, so that was cool, just to experience a different team, a different competition, and keep playing along the way.”
The adjustment has not been without its challenges. Without the familiar structure of a state or national programme, Lanning has had to take greater ownership of her preparation. In Melbourne, she has worked closely with Stars batting coach Blake Reed, refining her game while preserving the purposefulness that has long defined her batting.
“(Blake’s) been really great to work with, just trying to expand my game and keep improving along the way,” she said. “As far as I see it, I get to come in and bat for 45 minutes, an hour, and be very purposeful and then I’m done for the day. I like that part of it; I’m pretty to the point and like to be pretty purposeful.”
Lanning’s hunger is not merely rhetorical. In the previous WBBL 11 campaign, she was Melbourne Stars’ leading run-scorer and the tournament’s second-highest run-getter, compiling 479 runs at a strike rate of 136.07 and an average of 53.22 in 11 innings. Her tally included three half-centuries and a century, underlining that even away from the international arena, her standards remain relentlessly high.
Her challenge now is to turn individual brilliance into a long-awaited collective breakthrough. Melbourne Stars remain the only franchise yet to win the WBBL title, with their closest approach coming in WBBL 06 in 2020, when they finished runners-up. Last season, the Stars finished fourth on the points table with 11 points from 10 games, five wins, four defeats and a washed-out match, before their campaign ended in a knockout defeat to Sophie Devine’s Perth Scorchers by 28 runs on 9th December 2025.
Lanning, though, believes experience can become Melbourne’s greatest asset. “We’ve got so much experience with this side, so I think a lot of the time, I’m just going to be facilitating those players and helping bring the best out of them,” she said. That is perhaps the most compelling evolution in Lanning’s leadership: less control, more empowerment. The former Australia captain no longer needs to prove her place or carry every burden alone. Instead, she can channel her vast experience into creating an environment where Sutherland, the senior professionals and the emerging talents can flourish.
“I love playing, and I love competing and trying to help the team that I’m playing in win as many games as possible,” Lanning said. “I still want to perform as well as I can and really try and dominate the competitions that I play in.”
For Melbourne Stars, that mindset could be transformative. Lanning arrives not as a player chasing relevance, but as a champion batter chasing a missing trophy. Her relaxed exterior conceals a familiar ambition: to make WBBL 12 the season when the Stars finally turn their history of near-misses into a maiden title.
(Quotes sourced from cricket.com.au)
I am Yash Tailor, and I believe work should be driven by passion. Therefore, after completing my Engineering, I chose to work in the Cricket industry, my passion. My goal is to reach a stage where I truly enjoy what I do and give my best to every task with energy and purpose.