Renowned former Australia captain Meg Lanning, celebrated for her illustrious cricket career adorned with 7 World Cup titles and a Commonwealth Games Gold, retired from international cricket in late 2023 at the age of 31, amid murmurs of health concerns. Initially tight-lipped about her retirement, Lanning has now revealed the reasoning in a recent interview with Mark Howard on The Howie Games podcast.
After Australia clinched the Gold medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, Meg took an indefinite break from the sport. However, as the 2023 Women’s T20 World Cup approached, she made a comeback to international cricket, participating in a series against Pakistan on home turf. Under her leadership, Australia triumphed in defending their T20 World Cup title. Subsequently, she led the Delhi Capitals to the final in the inaugural season of the Women’s Premier League (WPL).
Fans eagerly anticipated Meg’s participation in the highly anticipated away Ashes series after her stellar performances in the World Cup and the WPL. However, she was sidelined from the tour due to an undisclosed medical concern. Revealing the reason behind her absence, Meg disclosed that an obsession with running and an insufficient diet to support the amount of running she did lead to significant weight loss, which resulted in her absence from the 2023 Ashes series.
Quoting Meg Lanning, “I was over exercising and under fueling. I got to the point where I was doing about 85-90km a week. I was in denial. It became a bit of an ‘I am going to show you’ sort of thing. It sort of just spiraled. I was not in a place to be able to go on tour and play cricket and give the commitment levels required for that (2023) Ashes series mentally and physically.”
“I got down to 57kg from 64kg. It wasn’t ridiculous but it was significant. The ratios were out of whack. But it was the other things that I did not realize. It (affected) my ability to concentrate. I didn’t really want to see other people. I disengaged a lot from friends and family. I didn’t realize that I was doing this. It sort of became a new normal.”
Meg Lanning also revealed her struggle with insomnia, admitting, “I got to the point where I dreaded night-time because I knew I would go to bed and not be able to sleep… Sleeping for a long time was a big struggle, but somehow I kept operating.”
As a private individual, Meg did not open up about her challenges to her teammates within the team. However, she believes they sensed something was amiss, not only from her appearance but also from her interactions.
She said, “I think they knew something was up. I couldn’t see it in my appearance but (they) could see it. And everything that comes with it. The other behaviors as you settle into your new normal of not speaking to many people, being grumpy, not being able to concentrate, and not sleeping. I became a bit of a different person. Pretty hard to be around, I would say.”
Meg eventually sought professional help to get herself back on track and refused to label her imbalanced eating as a disorder, as it wasn’t formally diagnosed as such. Later in the year, she made a comeback to professional cricket showcasing sublime form in the Women’s National Cricket League (WNCL), despite her prolonged absence. However, she opted out of international cricket during the October series and in November, made the surprising announcement of her retirement from international cricket.
Meg didn’t want to take on commitments of touring and captaining Australia despite good performances as it “had become a bit of an autopilot.”
While Meg has returned to cricket, recently leading her team to another final in the WPL after participating in the WNCL, her personal battle continues. Importantly, she said, “I’m in a good spot now,” and further added, “What I have come to know is that everybody is always going through something, no matter how much they look like they have got things under control. And that was something that I felt like I was good at, looking like I had everything under control. And that’s absolutely not the case. I’ve really started to understand how actually talking to people and letting people know can actually help.”