Glenn Maxwell to take break from cricket to deal with mental health difficulties

Not when they were picked. Read again

I think you will find that the Australian selectors have already sent Maxi the way of Gayle (and rightly so IMHO). His future lies in T20 and ODI.

Erm! Head, Labuschagne and Maxwell all have very similar 1st Class records (around 39 average). Head has a better Test record than Labuschagne, who in turn has a better Test record than Maxwell!

2018 may have been tough for him (who knows) but I for one do not believe that CA treated him shabbily. He is an excellent short form cricketer but not an international long form player.

Maybe Maxi doesn’t brown nose people he’s supposed to. If they liked him in the way they like the Marsh brothers they’d be inventing reasons to play him. We’ve all seen people bullied in workplaces. We know it when we see it. It’s never going to happen for him in Australia whole particular people are involved in the game.

It’s victimisation. Maxi needs to speak out and his treatment and just stick to the facts not get personal with people. The facts will tell the story. Workplace bullying. People feel threatened by him. He should just do a Gayle at this point. What’s he hanging around for? Australia don’t take ODI and T20i cricket seriously outside World Cups. Tests and BBL is that matters in Australia.

IMO 18 million dollars doesn’t seem to be getting to grass roots. In my part of the world (Townsville) we currently can’t run an age comp. above under 14? 30 years ago we had 10-12 teams in that age group and 100k population. That means kids either play seniors or go somewhere else. The population is 150K and seniors have players doubling up every weekend to field teams? The Comp is struggling, clubs are folding and numbers are falling? Yet we have paid coaches and 12 year old academy kids, what ever does that mean? It’s expensive, time consuming and volunteers are almost nonexistent. I Can’t blame the young generation as I think the culture that is being displayed by the grey nomads that have recently been clambering all over Uluru is a big part of the problem.

Langer only scored the 1 century in 32 Test innings in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, UAE. That were Maxwell's Test career stats also reside.

The Australian Selectors say he is not good enough.

It's very tough to score runs in India. How many Australians have done it? Maxwell has never been given an opportunity in his home conditions even though he finished 2nd only to Smith on Australia's Test batting averages in India at 39.75. The great Kohli averaged 9.2 runs for the that series? Shaun and Mitch Marsh had a combined total of 12 Innings and averaged 16.58 but Maxwell was dropped and replaced by them for the next home Ashes series? Did you know in Maxwell's 14 Test innings he has batted in every position from 1-8 in and never more than 3 times in any one position in the order? Warner has batted 1-3, 146 times out 147 innings in Test cricket. Warner has scored 1 hundred in his last 25 innings and passed 50 once in his last 13 Test Innings. Warner has hit 3 hundreds in his last 36 bats and 2 of them were against Bangladesh 2017 (Maxwell finished well ahead of Smith, Khawaja and Wade in the averages in that Bangladesh series) but was still dropped for the following home Tests Series? Shaun Marsh who replaced Maxwell for the home Ashes series has currently scored 1 score (60 at Adelaide) above 50 in his last 19 Test innings. I hear he is again being looked at ? Maxwell was fined by (Smith and the leadership group of ball tamperers) for comments he made when questioned by reporters about his position in Victoria's batting order. Smith personal criticised Maxwell about training properly? Well he wasn't doing to bad as he outscored Mr Smith and most of his batting mates in the Series before he was dropped? How can you say he isn't good enough for Test cricket ?

So CA as the employer tells the selectors (the employees) you cannot pick Maxwell because he not a red ball cricketer. In your dreams. He has a contact as one of the best 20 players in Australia. There are a heap of other players who would dearly love the same. So giving him a contract makes it worse. Can you come and diagnose my mental health, I am sure I need it, and you would be expert enough to do so. And where is the system broken. CA has just announced an 18 million dollar surplus, which is fantastic to fund cricket and development.

Indeed... However, still worth putting on record the absolutely shabby way he's been treated by CA. And, no one would be shocked if that was a reason. He's been open in the past that 2018 was a tough year for him.

Yep, family, friends or colleagues asking if they sense something is off and people feeling supported to be able to speak up and admit it when it is. Huge amounts of work to do but it really feels like we are doing better in this space.

Well said badmanners.

And it sort of seems Langer asked him if he was OK.

You have no idea what the issue is spruce. These speculations help no one.

See below.

It’s fairly evident from Maxwell’s comments in December last year about mental health battles that lack of red ball cricket opportunities was weighing him down. He specifically mentioned only getting two Shield games at the start of the last domestic season as a concern. I can’t think of any other Australian player whose prospects are as affected by the cricket schedule as much as him. What happened in 2018 was especially poor. Should I hear Damian Hardwick or Alastair Clarkson bring to an interview a dossier of a player’s poor stats to explain him not getting picked, I’ll accept that this is now considered best practice player management, that Langer handled it well and that it was the right thing to do to conduct that SEN interview. What was already a tough situation for Maxwell surely became that bit harder.

The selectors and CA hierarchy in 2018 told him not to go and get a county contract because he was going to be picked on an "A" tour in India. He subsequently wasn't picked on that tour...and the reason given was that he wasn't in good FC form (which no one was, cause it was winter). He then was excluded from the squad to play Pakistan in Dubai, because he hadn't played any red ball cricket for months (because they stole that opportunity from him). The people who they picked instead of him (Head and Labuschagne) had played less and had inferior FC records than him. Neither Head or Labuschagne have set the world on fire either playing tests. Head has been dropped, Labu has done well, but not spectacular. He's been lied to, and mislead. That can make an employee feel very isolated, unwanted and can question their self-worth. He's been pigeonholed as a white ball player. Go and ask people like Michael Bevan and David Hussey what that feels like. They have both spoken openly about how it can impact your confidence as a cricketer...knowing no matter how well you do in FC cricket, selectors have unfairly ruled you out permanently - and to watch someone else absolutely bottle chance after chance in a test side (S Marsh, M Marsh) but to still get chance after chance. You tell me how CA take no responsibility in this? You can't say..."well they gave him a contract". That actually can make things worse. It places a sense of unearned power on the employer over the employee. It in effect, traps Maxwell in a broken system.

It’s still more than what Mitch Marsh averaged in over 30 tests. Maxwells bowling isn’t that much worse than Marsh’s and his fielding is a damn site better. It’s more than what Harris and Bancroft average. It’s one more hundred than those two have combined in 20 matches. Nearly as higher average as Wade in 30 odd matches.