Meg Lanning arrived in Sydney a couple of days before the World Cup. Requests arrived from good areas and bad. Quick photo over here, m’dear? One over there? Can you do an interview? Another interview? Actually, half-a-dozen more interviews? Can you do an interview about all the interviews you’re doing? Can you sign this? And that? Can you simultaneously rub your head and pat your stomach at the same time for us? Got any knock-knock jokes?
All requests were to help promote the biggest tournament that women’s cricket had ever seen, and so Lanning said a cheerful and dutiful yes to all of them.
It was not so long ago that her side could not have attracted this much attention with a nude calendar. Never before had the Southern Stars — are they still called that? — been better positioned to continue the sport’s growth and get more and more young girls interested and ensure the World Cup stayed prominent in a publication such as this. Lanning’s responsibilities extended beyond having a hit in the nets.
As spokesperson for the Australian team, she was in high demand to take microphones, to keep saying cheese, to keep doing everything she could to capitalise on this two-week window of opportunity for the women’s game. Ditto for many other members of her squad. Some of them were accustomed to the extra-curricular activities and interest. Some were not. Finally, they got to squeeze a game in — and they flopped.
Crikey. Things have become awfully serious, awfully quickly. The Australians can say until they’re royal blue in the face that their first-up defeat to India has been a minor aberration, but the manner of their capitulation was staggering and then some. It was staggering and then some to spectators. Staggering and then some to India. Staggering and then some to themselves. Staggering and then some to anyone who could not work out why Phoebe Litchfield was not in the XI, let alone the squad.
Batting collapses spread like insidious diseases. Ask past Australian men’s teams. Ask the Melbourne Stars, who have mastered the art of making it feel like there’s a collapse before a collapse has even begun. It becomes a self-perpetuating epidemic. Lanning’s mob have only two consecutive batting slumps on their otherwise pristine recent record, in a pre-World Cup game against South Africa, when they lost 4-21 at the top of the order, and then in the landslide against India, but it’s the sort of back-to-back development that can rattle a dressing room.
The Australians were coasting at 1-55 in Sydney but a few bewitching rolls of the dice later from Poonam Yadav, they were skittled for 115. Inside the overall 9-60 demise was the sort of 7-39 slump normally associated with a BBL side featuring Marcus Stoinis, Peter Handscomb and Glenn Maxwell in a final. Nine batters failed to reach double figures.
“We love a bit of pressure, that’s fine. We always say that you can’t go through this tournament undefeated,” Alyssa Healy said. But that’s not true. You can. You nearly have to.
Defeat to Sri Lanka in Perth on Monday night virtually guarantees Australia’s elimination from the Cup. It’s improbable. Sri Lanka are decent, nothing more. But favouritism and hometown hype can be a cerebral prison in certain circumstances, and for all we know, this tournament is one of them for an Australian side whose nerves and confidence are now a little frayed around the edges.
They will have to be wildly out of sorts to lose because even if the Sri Lankans jagged a win over England in a Cup practice match, the Australians are $1.04 favourites with Sportsbet for a reason. A loss is a near-unfathomable proposition but you never know in roulette tournaments like this. The butterflies will be fluttering like mad. Australia’s tournament has become sudden-death knockout.
In The Art of Captaincy, Mike Brearley wrote: “What sort of things go on in the captain’s head? And what makes thinking difficult? As captain, you sometimes feel the whole operation is on the verge of collapse. You are swayed by conflicting demands: both short-term and long-term, tactical and psychological; amongst your own players one is fuming, another sulking; your opponents are rampant or perhaps eking out their resources better than you feel they should be.”
Lanning’s short-term demands have been immense. No one is suggesting her set-up is on the verge of collapse, but the unusually hyped lead-in to the World Cup must have taken a bit of a toll.
When ex-Australia captain Alex Blackwell was asked about Ellyse Perry after the loss to India, she mentioned the demands on high-profile players. It was a good point, but is not limited to Perry. This is uncharted territory for the players who have spent most of their careers in virtual anonymity.
The art of captaincy for Lanning will be ensuring the rattled dressing room does not shake out of control. The promos have been done to death. Only one thing matters from now on … cricket.
Labuschagne career in ‘grave danger’ as torment continues
Even an umpire howler couldn’t save Marnus Labuschagne from another low score in the second Test in Galle. As DANIEL CHERNY writes, the Aussie No. 3 is on borrowed time.
Labuschagne is committed, focused and hopelessly out of touch
For the first time in a long time, Australia has options at the top of the order and it continues Marnus Labuschagne’s run of poor timing.