Glenn Maxwell’s non-stop cricket schedule sure to have proven ‘mentally, physically exhausting’
Glenn Maxwell’s mental health struggles could’ve been brought about by any number of factors, but it is only human nature that the exhausting life of a cricketer would play a part.
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Glenn Maxwell appeared his usual bubbly and excited self at last week’s launch of the Australian cricket summer at Glenelg beach.
But a glance at his answers almost elicits a yawn. Not because Maxwell is boring – he never is – rather, just the opposite.
The world’s greatest showman has not stopped entertaining in a year that has come just about gone without a break.
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The morning after Maxwell’s Melbourne Stars lost the Big Bash final – and his long Australian summer was over – he boarded a plane to India, almost certainly with a sore head and lack of sleep.
Since then Maxwell has barely put his bat down.
There’s been five-match ODI tours of India and the UAE (Pakistan), a 10-match World Cup campaign that included six warm-up games, training camps in Brisbane and Istanbul plus a season of County Cricket for Lancashire either side of the 50-over tournament.
That Lancashire season came at the expense of a $2 million IPL contract in a move Maxwell hoped would reignite his fading Test career.
“(Lancashire) probably didn’t quite work out the way I would’ve liked,” Maxwell said last week.
“I could’ve quite easily come home and had a rest for a couple of months when everyone else was having time off. I’m glad I did it, and I’ll probably do it again in future.”
Maxwell was back playing for Lancashire two days after Australia’s World Cup semi-final defeat in Birmingham, while nine days after Lancashire’s season ended he was at the WACA Ground playing a one-dayer for Victoria.
Maxwell flew to India on February 18 and finally returned home to Melbourne in late September, albeit while on the go for Victoria.
That’s a lot of hotels, airports, packing and unpacking and nights away from his own bed.
“Mentally and physically it’s exhausting,” Australia coach Justin Langer said.
“We’ve always got to try and find the balance in that.”
Maxwell’s mental health struggles could’ve been brought about by any number of factors, but it is only human nature that the exhausting life of a cricketer would play a part.
As Langer said: “It’s not like a hamstring that snaps or a broken finger that just breaks, it builds up. I’m not sure what prompted it just before Adelaide”.
Maxwell’s mate Aaron Finch openly discussed how mentally and physically fried he was after five Test matches last year.
So Finch took April off this year in what was, remarkably, his first holiday in seven years.
“I slept like a baby for about a week,” Finch said.
A “fresh” David Warner noted all the things he hadn’t missed in his year on the sidelines.
“Just the little things of being on time for buses, for aeroplanes, packing your bags, travelling a lot like, you’re in and out of hotels …,” he said.
Even Langer said that the life of a cricketer was “not as glamorous as it looks” given the sacrifices they make.
Maxwell is finally taking a break.
We’re not sure exactly why, but it’s certainly not hard to justify.