More funding for support networks for elite cricketers has been welcomed by superstar Ellyse Perry, who lauded the “incredible bravery” shown by her former Australian captain Meg Lanning in disclosing the off-field battles that brought a premature end to her legendary career.
Longtime teammate and friend Perry issued her support for her former skipper in the wake of the revelations that she had “an unhealthy relationship” with exercise and food that she hid from public view as she captained her nation.
Lanning twice took mental health breaks from the game, missing the 2023 Ashes, before retiring from international cricket last November at the age of 31.
On Tuesday at the MCG, during Cricket Australia’s launch of their women and girls action plan that will include $500m in funding over the next decade, Perry said she hoped by Lanning revealing her story it could help others.
“As a teammate of Meg’s, first and foremost, the whole team is just incredibly supportive of her and hope very much that her welfare is OK – her wellbeing, that’s the most important thing,” Perry said
“It’s obviously incredibly brave for her to come out and speak about those things.
“I’m sure in doing so she hopes that helps other people as well who experience similar things.
“It’s obviously really hard to hear that as a teammate, to know that someone that you’ve played with so closely for a long period of time has had some struggles.
“At the same time, I really hope she’s doing well and has access to the appropriate care that she needs.”
CA boss Nick Hockley also said there were “strong lessons” to come out of Lanning’s revelations. As well as commending the former captain’s “bravery”, he said the funding around help for similar issues was starting to catch up with the professionalism of the women’s game.
“The professionalisation (of women’s cricket) that we’ve talked about has happened relatively quickly over the last 10 years,“ Hockley said.
“The support networks that exist at a national level, a state level is something that we really want to make sure we put the best support around all of our elite players and across the workforce.
“One of the things she (Lanning) talked about on the podcast was actually just being able to speak to people really helped, so hopefully here are some really strong lessons in that for everybody and I just commend her leadership.”
One of the five mandates of the new plan is to deliver greater investment in “holistic support” for personal and player “mental and off-field skill development”, with further increases to support personnel to ensure those with issues like Lanning don’t carry the burden alone.