CHENNAI: On March 7, 2023, Delhi Capitals played UP Warriorz in the league stage of the Women's Premier League at the D Y Patil Stadium. For Stacy Ann King, a World Cup winner herself, it was probably one of the most nervous days of all. After all, it was her first toss as a broadcaster. While pacing in the lobby of the Marriott Hotel, located just outside the Stadium, she nervously asked Natalie Germanos, a seasoned pro, "Any tips?" Germanos’ advice was followed by a matter-of-fact. "If you ask Meg Lanning what she would have done after she lost the toss, she would simply say, 'Umm, I don't really care what we do first'." A few minutes later, after losing the toss, Lanning verbatim repeated Germanos’ line — I don't really care what we do first.
That was not arrogance. That’s just how little Lanning allowed the game’s “uncontrollables” to weigh on her shoulders. And after representing Australia for 13 years, in a very Lanning-like fashion — without any fuss and cricket's uncontrollables weighing on her shoulders — the 31-year-old announced her retirement from international cricket on Thursday. "It's all I've ever known really for 13 years and I've given everything to being as good as I can to help the team win. And now it's time to focus on myself and see what else is out there," an emotional Lanning told the media in Melbourne.
While it might have come as a surprise, Lanning's decision to call it a day did not seem all that sudden. For, in the last 18 months, she had taken two sabbaticals from the sport — first for her mental health and second, due to an undisclosed illness. After all, she was thrust with the responsibility of the historically successful Australian side at the age where people usually finish their under-graduation. Even then, Lanning had already proved herself a worthy leader by winning the 2014 T20 World Cup as a captain of the shortest format in Bangladesh.
In the coming years, first with Alex Blackwell, and then Rachael Haynes by her side, she continued that legacy of the victorious team, while never showing any dip in her personal performance. When Matthew Mott joined forces with her in 2015 as a coach, the Women's Ashes trophy came along. The team seemed all set for a dominant run in the second half of the 2010s, but the sport had other ideas. In 2016 and 2017, Australia lost their T20 and ODI World Cup crowns to West Indies and England, respectively. The captain-coach duo had their work cut out and that is where Lanning, the captain, changed. The loss against India in the 2017 WC semi-final was the blow to wake them up from a slumber of their own success and reinvent themselves.
If pre-2017 Australia were dominant, they were simply ruthless in their pursuit post-2017. They went hard at the opposition, without giving them any room to breathe. And when the time came, Australia cut all hope even before anyone from the opposition could come up with a counter-attack. It resulted in Australia reclaiming their T20I title in 2018, defending it in front of their home crowd under immense pressure two years later, and winning it all again in South Africa without losing a single match in 2023. It also led to Lanning's team winning 26 ODIs in a row and bagging the ODI World Cup in New Zealand without dropping a match. That aura of ruthless dominance even won Australia a Commonwealth Games gold medal in 2022.
After every tournament win, the pundits would ask, “What’s next for this team? How much higher can they raise the bar?” And every time, Lanning’s team found a way to answer emphatically. As the leader of that almost flawless side, Lanning did it all. She won everything that is there to win for a captain — 4 T20 WCs, 1 ODI WC and a CWG gold. While doing it she scored every possible run for her country, captained some of the best players in the world, and made a few careers, without any fuss. If Ellyse Perry was the face of the changing game of cricket, Lanning was the heartbeat of that change. If Alyssa Healy showed what a female athlete can achieve given opportunities in the biggest arena, Lanning helped build that confidence brick by brick. If Beth Mooney or Tahlia McGrath could showcase where women's cricket can go, Lanning remained the launching pad for it all.
With 8,352 runs from 241 international matches, Lanning stands tall in the Hall of Fame of international batters. However, her legacy as a captain and a leader is more than that. Many have called the Australian system a production line of talented players. One look at the ongoing WBBL would confirm that. But under Lanning, Australia felt like a dominant, all-conquering armada with a soul. The team that fought with character, won aplenty, took their lessons from the defeats, and came back with a force that was unknown to the game. All this with a smile on their faces. "We want to be remembered as the team that is the greatest team ever," said Beth Mooney in The Record, a documentary about Australia's 2020 T20 World Cup campaign. "But more than that we want to be remembered as a team that plays with character, fight and spirit."
That is the legacy the Lanning era has left behind. The greatest cricket team the world has ever seen with just the sheer weight of their on-field achievements, but also the one that fought with the true Aussie attitude of cricket: Playing hard but fair and putting the team first.
No one in women's cricket has been called 'God' yet. Maybe it's because the women's game is more human than it meets the eye. But if there is anyone who has achieved that level of immortality in that sphere, it is Meghann Moira Lanning.
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