How Australia’s cricketers try to balance family life with months on the road

Australia’s cricketers get paid plenty for playing the game they love. But the realities of life on the road mean they and their families must make plenty of sacrifices. Sam Landsberger reports.

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David Warner’s daughter has had her birthdate chosen by Cricket Australia.

On Sunday, in a London hospital, Warner’s wife Candice will be induced into labour, delivering the couple their third child.

Warner will be there. Then he will be back to work, joining teammates in Manchester this week as Candice and their three girls move into an apartment in Paddington.

Delivering the newborn on Sunday capitalises on Australia’s seven-day break, ensuring Warner doesn’t miss a delivery in the World Cup.

For the unborn baby, that means spending the first three months of her life in London, where big sisters Ivy Mae and Indy Rae started school and tennis lessons last month.

David and Candice Warner with children Ivy Mae and Indy Rae in London. Picture: Instagram

Candice and the three girls are expected to live in Paddington until the end of the Ashes series, trying to emulate a normal life in London.

But it isn’t easy.

Women aren’t usually induced on Sundays in the United Kingdom and Candice had to fly over last month, just before the travel deadline in her pregnancy passed.

“The players make a lot of sacrifices,” coach Justin Langer told the Herald Sun recently.

“They sacrifice being home a lot, they sacrifice a normal routine lifestyle, they sacrifice a lot of time with their families.

Candice Warner plays with daughters Ivy Mae and Indy Rae at the Australian cricket team training at Lord’s.

“You see the final product — running around on the ground and the smiling faces — these guys get paid very well and everyone recognises that.

“I know the argument, ‘Well they get paid’ but you’ve still got to treat them as human beings.”

In 2014, Nathan Lyon watched the birth of his second daughter, Milla, on Skype, during the final day of a Test match in the UAE.

Should Marcus Stoinis earn Ashes selection, he will spend nearly 300 consecutive days on the road, excluding two treasured nights at home when his Melbourne Stars played in Perth last February.

Stoinis passed up a break in April to play in the Indian Premier League, while Glenn Maxwell spent that time playing County Cricket in England.

All-rounder Marcus Stoinis will spend almost 300 days on the road if he makes the Ashes squad. Picture: AFP

On February 18, Maxwell went straight from the Stars’ commiseration drinks after the Big Bash League final to the airport to fly to India for Australia’s limited-overs tour. He has not been back to Melbourne since.

That’s a lot of unpacking and repacking suitcases with Australia’s all-rounders running from city to city almost as much as they have between the wickets.

On May 10 the Australians flew from Brisbane to Gallipoli, going from one mandatory World Cup training camp to another.

That was the last time the players were allowed to see their loved ones for five weeks and the “family period” only began after their fourth World Cup game.

Langer said there was more “art than science” in deciding when to allow wives, kids and girlfriends on tour.

Members of the Australian cricket team at Gallipoli.

“You’ve got to treat them as people and recognise there’s some extroverts, there’s some introverts, there’s some people who are single, some have families, some whose wives are going to have babies,” he said.

“One of the things Tim Ford said to me when we caught up after he did the cultural review was, ‘One of the biggest issues you’ve got is when people have their partners on tour’.

“Everyone’s got such a different view on it. I think AB (Allan Border) had in 1989 no wives on tour, and I’ll put it in context for you.

“I’ve been going out with my wife since I was 14 years old. I played for Australia when I was 22 and went on a lot of tours and she’s been for one week twice to England on an Australian tour.

“She’s never been to South Africa, she’s never been to West Indies, she’s never been to Sri Lanka, she’s never been to Pakistan, she’s never been to India.

“So there’s been a real shift over the years where girlfriends and partners on tour have just become more of the norm.

Australian coach Justin Langer says he’s seeking a balance between fostering close team camaraderie and having players’ wives and partners involved on tour.

“Ian Healy said before the last Ashes, ‘Wives on tour are a distraction’ and he got smashed in the media for that.

“We’re trying to find a nice balance because we recognise camaraderie within the group is crucial and when there aren’t partners on tour the boys have breakfast, lunch and dinner together and that’s how you build real camaraderie.”

It was fitting the Australians trained at the Lord’s Nursery Ground on Thursday, because it looked like Kids Club.

Candice Warner watched her two daughters play hopscotch with the Aussies’ training cones about 20m from the nets, while paceman Jason Behrendorff took his one-year-old son Harrison for a walk on the hallowed Lord’s turf that he bagged five wickets on only two days earlier.

Shaun and Rebecca Marsh’s son, Austin, 3, and daughter Mabel, four months, are in England while 27-year-old Alex Carey also has a son, Louis.

Shaun Marsh with son Austin. Picture: Mark Stewart

“It can be tough,” captain Aaron Finch said of the extended time on the road.

“It's important that when you get days off, you really get away from the game and freshen up.”

For Finch — and plenty of others — that meant reaching for the golf bag. Now it means carrying shopping bags, although Finch and his wife, Amy, did enjoy a round of mini-golf last week.

“That's the closest I've got to the course since she's been here. Sorry, darling,” Finch said with a smile.

Stoinis’s release is music while Finch said Usman Khawaja “loves his shopping”.

As for Steve Smith?

“He’s still walking around his room with a cricket bat in his hand,” Finch said.

“It's just totally different for everyone, but just mentally refreshing every chance you get is so important.”

Langer summed it up best.

“I’d say this,” he said. “I would not change my life for anything — but it’s not as glamorous as it looks.”