SOCIAL SIDE TO BE HIT FOR SIX
IT’LL BE SERIOUS BUSINESS FOR ALL-CONQUERING AUSSIE WOMEN
MEG Lanning is adamant there will be no repeat of the ice-creams and lettuce fable which devastated Steve Waugh the last time an Australian team went to the Commonwealth Games.
It is 24 years since Australia’s men lost to South Africa in the final at Kuala Lumpur, but Lanning says her world champion team has learned an important lesson from Waugh’s bitter retelling of those Games – that there is no silver lining for a silver medal.
Former Australian fast bowler Damien Fleming recalls lining up for a guilt-free third helping of ice-cream at the athletes’ village back in 1998, as he watched the Canadian sprint team sitting down to eat their salads.
Some of Australia’s individual athletes in Kuala Lumpur were said to be mortified at the ‘social’ approach being taken by the highprofile cricketers, who were holding nightly bonding sessions in the hallways with the Sevens rugby team.
They weren’t alone in their disgust: the anguish was written all over Waugh’s face when called up to accept silver.
“The way we lost to an understrength South African side in the gold-medal game hurt me,” Waugh wrote in his book.
“Because some of our guys had switched into party mode and believed it was a given we would win.
“I wasn’t upset with the silver, but I was aggrieved at our lack of professionalism.”
Lanning hasn’t gone as far as imposing an ice-cream ban in Birmingham, but is adamant the Aussie women won’t be taking the Commonwealth Games experience for granted as they chase gold as hard as they have World Cup glory.
To prove it, she has called in two-time gold medallist, four-time Commonwealth Games veteran and former Australian flag-bearer, netball champion Sharelle McMahon, to address the cricketers about what it means to represent your country at a Games.
“I haven’t spoken to (Waugh) directly about it, but I have heard that was the case,” Lanning told News Corp.
“As a group, I think we’ve found a really good balance over the past few years in particular, of concentrating when we need to and also switching off and being able to enjoy the surroundings you’re in.
“I can’t see this being any different.
“It’s about really embracing the Commonwealth Games and being part of a bigger team, which is something new.
“We’ve got Sharelle McMahon coming up to have a chat to the group. She went to quite a few Commonwealth Games and understands what it’s all about, and obviously she’s now involved in Cricket Victoria.
“That’s something that as a group we’ve spoken about doing, is trying to listen to different stories and experiences and try and understand what it’s all about.
“Obviously we’re going over there to win gold. That’s our aim.”
Lanning’s Australian team has won every trophy going in world cricket – but the Commonwealth Games presents a new challenge. Not least of all because it’s the start of a new era under caretaker coach, Shelley Nitschke.
With Matthew Mott gone to England and senior assistant Ben Sawyer now to coach against Australia at the Commonwealth Games in his new role in charge of New Zealand – Nitschke is now in the hot seat, trying to inspire one of the world’s great sporting teams to reach for even higher heights.
“For the group, it just changes things slightly, which I don’t think is a bad thing ,” said Lanning.
“I think (sharpen us up) is exactly what it’ll do.
“We’d been really focused on that 50-over World Cup and achieving what we wanted to there, and now we’re just going through a bit of a reset of our focus and goals.
“Perhaps a new coach coming in fits in nicely with that. That’s the way we’re looking at it.”