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Imagine captaining your country to a World Cup win at the age of 22, while personally turning in a decisive performance in the final four crunch matches. The deed would stand for the rest of your life.
That’s the scope of what Meghann Lanning, compulsorily abbreviated in the Australian style to Meg, has achieved.
When Australia played their first match at this year’s Women’s World Twenty20 she was 21 years old. Within two days it was her birthday; within ten she had set the world record for the highest individual WT20 score, and directed a young side to their country’s third consecutive world title.
This was her first tournament as captain, drafted into the job when Jodie Fields pulled out of the squad with injury. Not only that, Lanning batted at first drop throughout and scored more runs than anyone.
When I was 21, I was working hospitality, playing Grand Theft Auto and going out on the weekend to put my hands up for Detroit. Being world-class at anything other than eating those tubes of raw cookie dough never registered as a possibility. If you think green-and-gold pyjamas look silly, you should have seen my uniform.
Still, one of the great annoyances of being young is people’s surprise when you prove capable of doing anything. The condescension stinks like Lynx body spray. I won’t say I’m surprised by Lanning’s achievements. I will say I’m impressed.
One of the key factors in Australia’s win is that for them, youth does not equal inexperience. Lanning made her state debut at the age of 16. By 18 she was in the national side, then became the youngest Australian, man or woman, to score an international hundred in any format.
She helped Australia win a T20 World Cup in 2012 and a 50-over World Cup in 2013. She played through twin Ashes campaigns last year. By now, Lanning is a seasoned professional.
Nor is hers a singular story. Only three of fifteen Australian squad members are more than 25 years old. Many debuted as teenagers. By the first half of their 20s, those like Jess Cameron and Ellyse Perry have racked up hundreds of state and international matches. Eight players from this team were part of the previous T20 World Cup win, and six of them played in the 2010 edition.
Men’s cricket fetishises youth, treating teenage players as miracles, while the rest remain padawans until past their mid-20s. When Shaun Marsh and Alex Doolan toured South Africa this year, ‘young’ apparently expanded its meaning to include ’30-odd and not very good’.
Neither the Southern Stars nor Lanning make that kind of fuss about age. It’s simply part of how they get things done. And getting things done was exactly Lanning’s approach, dominating the last few games with the control that experience brings.
After a poor start, scoring 2 and 6 in Australia’s first two games, Lanning topped the tournament with 257 runs at 42.83. She had the sixth-best average, and the only one in the top ten not boosted by a not-out. She had the fourth-best strike rate, while no one else in the top eight scored over a hundred runs.
Her 33 fours and 8 sixes were the most by a distance. In fact 57 sixes were hit across the tournament, which means Lanning alone accounted for 14 per cent of them.
Her record innings of 126 from 65 balls helped in every category, with 96 runs in boundaries and a strike rate pushing 200. It was made against a weak Ireland side, but Australia needed to boost their net run rate to ensure they qualified, and Lanning needed a score. She produced in the most emphatic fashion.
Next came her 50 from 33 balls to set a bulky total for Pakistan, then a solid 29 from 22 in the semi-final against West Indies to carry Australia into the 13th over and towards a defendable 140.
In the final, Lanning rotated her bowlers shrewdly to keep England uncomfortable at the crease, eventually suppressing their possible score to a mediocre 105. Such totals can make nervous chasing though, if the batting side get caught in two minds.
Lanning’s 44 from 30 balls, including a couple of clean sixes, was just the tonic. Her team shrugged off two early wickets, and by the time she was out, the chase had been all but negotiated with minimum nerves.
In a Southern Stars team that relies on all-round contributions, such a dominant run with the bat is unusual. For it to come from a first-time skipper on such a big stage is hugely impressive.
Age is not a factor though. Aside from giving a huge boost to her reputation as an elite cricketer, Lanning has taken charge and guided her team to the top of the world. That’s the kind of composure that most of us could never learn, however old we get.