Siddle tells of his ‘double life’
Peter Siddle has opened up on his battle with alcohol, revealing he would regularly black out during multi-day ‘‘benders’’ that put his career and life at risk.
The veteran Australian fast bowler said he was a ‘‘borderline alcoholic’’ early in his career when he was living a ‘‘double life’’ as a cricketer by day and ‘‘party boy’’ by night.
Siddle said it was not uncommon for him to have blackouts during his marathon drinking sessions, during which he would consume ‘‘in excess of 25, 30 drinks’’ and recalled how he once drove for 50 minutes after a day of partying.
The Victorian seamer said he narrowly escaped an alcoholrelated scandal during the 2009 Ashes tour when he was filmed during a physical confrontation with a local in Leeds.
Siddle also revealed his binge drinking nearly cost him his relationship with his now wife Anna, who returned to his house to find him in the company of another person.
Siddle, now a vegan and teetotaller, said he was approaching eight years without a drink. Had he not quit, he said he would most likely have been ‘‘sacked from cricket before I got to 30’’. Instead, he bowed out of the international game as one of the most respected cricketers in Australia.
Siddle, 35, said he was ashamed of his actions from early on in his international career, describing his behaviour as ‘‘disgusting’’.
‘‘I was doing all right, but the drinking side of things I wasn’t doing all right with that,’’ Siddle said in the podcast Ordineroli Speaking with broadcaster Neroli Meadows.
‘‘I was partying too hard, getting out of control. All my relationships that were real close to me, I was just in a way lying to them all. Hiding behind the fact, I was trying to enjoy life to the fullest off the field whilst I was doing that on the field.’’
Siddle said there were times when he would down a shot at the bar while waiting for the bartender to prepare his drink.
‘‘I was pretty much borderline alcoholic in a way,’’ Siddle said. ‘‘If I said I was a binge drinker it makes it sound better and look better for everyone else. People probably listen to it and go, ‘Oh yeah, but you only had drinks on the weekend’.
‘‘But sometimes weekends could be three, four, five days in a row.’’
Siddle said though he would not pass out while drinking there would be periods as long as seven hours he would have no recollection of.
One occasion, he drove home after a day of drinking at a friend’s buck’s party. He was woken by his father, who had driven nearly two hours to check on his wellbeing after being called by friends worried about
Siddle’s safety.
‘‘He made sure I was OK, checked on me, went downstairs, checked my car,’’ Siddle said. ‘‘He’s not worried about my car, he’s worried if there is something wrong. What have I hit? Who have I hit?’’
Siddle’s demons with the drink came when he was firmly entrenched in the test side.
‘‘Young man, on good money, money I’d never thought I’d be able to earn and just pretty much pissing it up against a wall to an extent,’’ Siddle said.
‘‘I’d got myself in some bad situations that could’ve cost myself a relationship with my now wife.’’
Siddle said he knew he had to give up drinking to save the relationship.
‘‘She comes home to my place with someone else in the room with me,’’ Siddle said. ‘‘I don’t remember much because I was in the state I was in pretty much every weekend.
‘‘We needed to talk and that was when I broke down. Yes, I’d f .... d up, but I knew that I wanted her to be in my life.
‘‘For me then, it was about how can I keep her because the situation I put myself in, what I’d done. I begged her to death, but also I knew things had to change then.
‘‘I was living two lives in a way. I was living the party boy life and trying to be a cricketer, not just a cricketer who rocks up on the weekend and plays 40 overs and then hangs out with the boys.
‘‘I was an Australian cricketer, at the time pretty much close to the peak of my powers, and I was throwing it all away.’’
‘‘I was partying too hard, getting out of control. I was trying to enjoy life to the fullest off the field whilst I was doing that on the field.’’ Peter Siddle