‘It doesn’t mean anything’: Maxi’s shock admission as Australia bundled out

Glenn Maxwell has made a telling comment about Australia’s T20 World Cup flop — and it exposes a surprising attitude.

The intensity of the modern cricket scheduled means Australia’s looming T20 World Cup exit “doesn’t mean anything”, according to Glenn Maxwell.

A narrow win over Afghanistan kept the hosts' chances of qualifying for the semi-finals alive but reliant on Sri Lanka upsetting England on Saturday night.

If the Poms salute, it would see the reigning World Cup champions knocked out of the tournament on run rate after winning four games, losing one and seeing their clash with England rained out.

It’s crunch time at the T20 World Cup and you can catch every match live and ad-free in play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >

While historically teams would have dwelled on a World Cup loss for months, if not years, nowadays there is simply too much international cricket on the docket for the Aussies to care according to Maxwell.

“You can‘t dwell on it. I think you move on pretty quickly,” he said.

“We‘ve got a one day series against England probably 24 hours later and then we’ve got the Big Bash and then we’ve got four day cricket.

“Cricket never stops so you don‘t get time to dwell. Maybe when you retire you think back to it would have been nice to win that but it doesn’t mean anything.

“I wish we had of won but we didn‘t.”

Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell during Australia’s win over Afghanistan. (Photo by Sarah Reed/Getty Images)

The blowout loss to the Kiwis is likely to cost Australia dearly, and Maxwell conceded it was a number of mistakes made by the side this tournament.

“We were so excited to get the tournament under way, it was the longest lead-in we’ve ever had, 15 games in all sorts of places and some pretty average conditions,” he said.

“Once that 15th game was finished against India at the Gabba, the feeling was almost a sigh of relief, and now we can start our tournament.

“We were fresh, pumped up and ready to go, and they just had a player who was better on the day, and that can happen. The opposition has a say in things, and pretty much everything we did they counteracted in those first four overs and that can be all it takes in a T20 game.

“The disappointment is we haven’t been able to show how we feel like we’re playing as a group and tonight (against Afghanistan) was a good opportunity to have that perfect game and ... maybe we should’ve sent Finchy out for the toss instead of Wadey, who knows. We’ve missed the big moments too many times.”

Maxwell added: “We haven’t put the complete game together.

“There were a couple of games last year during the World Cup where we probably did. Bangladesh, West Indies and Sri Lanka we played the complete game, almost back-to-back, they were clinical performances, we did the game quickly, and we were pretty sharp in all areas.

“We’ve missed a few opportunities this year, I feel like batters have got starts and haven’t gone big, I don’t think we’ve got any batters in the top five or 10 run scorers, we haven’t got the high wicket takers either, it feels like we’ve just been chipping away here and there.

“For us the frustration is it would’ve been nice to play that game against England and showcase where we think we are as a team and if you lose that you can wear it that you’ve missed out on finals ... and if you win that you put yourself in good stead. Starting the first game of the tournament not that well probably hurt us as well.”

Originally published as ‘It doesn’t mean anything’: Maxi’s shock admission as Australia bundled out