Alyssa Healy not only Aussie star celebrating a milestone as Meg Lanning ends eight-year effort
It took a lot longer than Alyssa Healy’s record breaking T20 ton that the Australian skipper watched from the other end, but Meg Lanning has added yet another feat to her long list of achievements.
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As Alyssa Healy smashed her way to the fastest international T20 century by an Australian on Wednesday, her skipper down the other end was celebrating a personal milestone of her own.
Because while Healy’s 100 came off just 46 balls, Meg Lanning’s eight-year knock of completing her Bachelor of Exercise and Health Science degree from the Australian Catholic University was an innings of utter persistence.
“My graduation is actually today in Melbourne would you believe,” Lanning laughed.
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“You could say it’s a long time coming, after eight years I finally have hit the finish line.
“Cricket has changed so much since I started playing, particularly in the past three or four years.
“When I started it wasn’t professional - and now our sport is full time but the great thing about study these days is being able to study online while travelling the world playing cricket.”
Lanning, 27, made her ODI debut for Australia as a teenager in 2011.
Her career has since shadowed the rise of international women’s cricket to full professionalism where the top women now earn around $200,000.
The Meg-a-star is also at the forefront of steering a sparkling Australian team towards a T20 World Cup title in Melbourne next year.
The ICC World Cup starts on February 21 and Cricket Australia and the ICC are hoping to fill the MCG at the women’s final with a record-breaking crowd.
For that reason, Lanning applauded the news that streaming service Kayo will now live stream every ball of the WBBL this summer.
“The easier it is to get people to watch our game - is a great thing for cricket and it all helps build excitement,” she said.
“Women’s cricket is such a great product now and exposure will help us build towards what we hope will be a record crowd - it’s an ambitious goal but I love that we are trying to do it.
“I hope the T20 World Cup final goes down as the best in history - it will be great to be part of it.”
Australia wrapped up its Twenty20 International Series against Sri Lanka this week and tomorrow (Sat) head into the first of three One Day Internationals against the Lions at Allan Border Field in Brisbane.
Originally published as Alyssa Healy not only Aussie star celebrating a milestone as Meg Lanning ends eight-year effort
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