Australian great Meg Lanning announces international cricket retirement

Meg Lanning says her time away from the game over the last 18 months helped her decision to step away from the Aussie side at just 31.

Meg Lanning says it will be “scary” to move on from international cricket but believes she has given all she has for Australia and is ready to explore her life outside of the game.

The Australian captain announced her retirement on Thursday after a decorated 241-game career spanning 13 years and seven World Cup victories as she stamped herself as one of the greatest batters of all time.

An emotional Lanning said her two extended breaks from cricket at the end of 2022 and this winter had solidified her decision to step away from the national side, revealing her exhaustion as she planned a permanent shift in focus to other areas of her life.

Lanning is only 31 but made her Australian debut at 18 before assuming the captaincy three years later, leading the side longer than any other women’s player over 182 games.

Meg Lanning has called time on her international career after winning seven World Cups, five as Australian captain. Picture: Hannah Peters / Getty Images

She said her whole adult life had been dedicated to the success of the Australian team and wept as she expressed her gratitude to her teammates as well as coaches Matthew Mott and Shelley Nitschke.

“Being part of a really special team for so long and working together with them has been my life essentially for 13 years … I know nothing other than that,” Lanning said.

“I was always really driven by team success and trying to help the team be as good as we can and try and contribute to wins.

“When your perspective changes a little bit, you think about things differently … (cricket) is pretty consuming, and to a certain extent, for such a long period that really worked for me and that’s probably why I had so much success – I gave everything I had to try to do as well as I could.”

Lanning also won Commonwealth Games gold at the Birmingham Games in 2022, where Australia won the women’s T20 tournament. Picture: Ryan Pierse / Getty Images

The ultra-consistent top-order batter amassed the second most T20I runs of all time over her career and is the eighth highest ODI run-scorer with the best average (53.51) of any player to score more than 1100 career runs.

Such is Lanning’s extraordinary record over 12 years in the 50-over format that only two players in history, England’s Rachel Heyhoe-Flint and Australia’s Lindsay Reeler, boast higher batting averages.

Lanning will continue to play for Victoria and the Melbourne Stars and did not rule out a return to global T20 leagues, including the WPL, but said she would miss the adrenaline of playing in tournaments for Australia after claiming five T20 World Cup titles, two ODI World Cups and a Commonwealth Games gold medal in 2022.

“That competitive side in me will always be there – I always looked forward to big tournaments and big games, I felt like that really brought the best out in me,” she said.

Lanning said Australia’s win in the 2020 T20 World Cup final at the MCG in front of a record crowd of 86,174 stood out as the greatest moment of her international career. Picture: Ryan Pierse / Getty Images

“I really prided myself on holding my nerve under pressure and being able to perform when the team needed me.

“I love that challenge. That (love) is probably still there, it’s just everything else that comes with it … I’ve got nothing left to give in that respect.”

Lanning singled out the Australian T20 World Cup triumph on home soil in front of a world record 86,174 fans at the MCG in 2020 as the greatest moment of her career as she said her hunger for team success since reaching that pinnacle had faded.

“I’ve achieved so much within the game and I’ve been lucky enough to have such a successful career … I feel like I’ve got nothing left to achieve on the international stage,” she said.

“For me, I can’t be half-in or half-out with anything, and that’s where I’ve landed with this decision – I no longer have the spark or motivation to do what needs to happen at this level … it’s time to move on.”

Originally published as Australian great Meg Lanning announces international cricket retirement