Australia Women captain Meg Lanning takes indefinite break from cricket

Australia Women captain Meg Lanning, who recently led her team to the Gold medal in the Commonwealth Games 2022, has decided to take an indefinite break from the game citing personal reasons, Cricket Australia (CA) announced in a statement on Wednesday.

Lanning has decided to step back from the game after a busy two-and-a-half-year period in which she led the Aussies to the T20I and ODI World Cups titles and the home Ashes series triumph.

Lanning’s decision to take a break from cricket, with no fixed date for her return, comes with the full support of the Australian apex board.

“We’re proud of Meg for acknowledging that she needs a break and will continue to support her during this time,” said CA’s head of performance of women’s cricket, Shawn Flegler, as quoted by Cricketcomau.

“She’s been an incredible contributor to Australian cricket over the last decade, achieving remarkable feats both individually and as part of the team, and has been a brilliant role model for young kids. The welfare of our players is always our number one priority, and we’ll continue to work with Meg to ensure she gets the support and space she needs,” Flegler added.

Lanning, who is legend in women’s cricket and currently ranked 2nd in T20I rankings and 5th in ODIs, said she wanted to spend more time focusing on herself and is forever grateful to her teammates and CA for the unconditional support.

“After a busy couple of years, I’ve made the decision to take a step back to enable me to spend time focusing on myself. I’m grateful for the support of CA and my teammates and ask that my privacy is respected during this time,” said Lanning.

The Singapore-born Aussie cricketer has played 6 Tests, 100 ODIs, and 124 T20Is, in which she has scored 345, 4463, and 3211 runs, respectively, with a total of 17 centuries.