Hello and welcome to Stumped, your intercontinental hit of news, features,
and debate from the quirky world of cricket. I'm Alison Mitchell. Not at a cricket ground
this week, but I am in the commentary box for the BBC World Service on Centre Court,
Wimbledon. Now I know it doesn't look very flash in my background if you're watching us on Youtube,
but I can tell you what I can see out the window in front of me is a beautifully manicured lawn.
Those stripes? Well, they're just being manicured a bit more at the moment because the mower is
being trundled up and down, the white lines are being refreshed with a little bit of paint
and yes, I'm commentating on the tennis at this fortnight, but still of course,
here to bring you Stumped. I reckon there might have been a couple of cricketers in the stands
a little bit incognito the other day, having a bit of a breather between Test matches. But there were
no social media posts if they were here. I think they very much wanted to keep it under wraps.
Jim Maxwell for the ABC in Sydney. Nice to see you installed at a sporting heaven at Wimbledon.
Everyone wants to go to Wimbledon and well as we know it's almost impossible to get tickets,
but they still queue, don't they? They're still making them queue. I don't understand that. But
here in Australia, I suppose most of the interest is in a series that's going on the subcontinent.
Australia's having some fun with the turning ball and there was a bit of a barbecue the other night
with Smith and Khawaja, which probably highlighted more the emotional immaturity still of Steve Smith
in the way he reacted to being run out. Anyway, it's a bit fun; a couple of Tests and something
we enjoy from afar, as we do with Wimbledon and of course, India and England. A Test match? Again?
I thought that was supposed to be last year, Charu? Well, it probably will rank as
one of the longest ever Test series in the game of cricket - about a year apart. Hello, this is
Charu Sharma, and I'm in New Delhi. Actually, the the National Capital region in Gurgaon,
in this lovely Westin Hotel, where I'm getting set to host one of these wonderful
felicitation ceremonies for achievers and leaders under 40. I look forward to meeting those guys,
but of course, so much cricket going on and the colour is green with envy, Alison. I'd love to
be at Wimbledon myself, but yeah, there's a lot of attention on this final Test. Jim,
Alison about the composition of the team, about the lack of leadership because of all the
illness and injury and everything else. A lot of cricket to look forward to. I must confess,
all of next week and a bit I'm actually away. I'm going to miss most of the action
because I'm going on a trek to Kashmir in the middle of this. Wonderful. We're going to cross to you from
Kashmir, that would be something, wouldn't it? And by the way,
are you not one of those achievers and leaders under 40, Charu? Surely. Surely!
Well, under 30 so...
It is good to see you both. First of all, it's the end of an era for the England men's white ball
team. Eoin Morgan has retired from international cricket and stepped down as England's white ball
captain after seven years in charge. In that time, England have won the 2019 World Cup,
reached the top of the one-day and T20 rankings, and on an individual level, Morgan retires as
England's leading run scorer and most capped player in one-day and T20 cricket. I mean, Jim,
in terms of England men's white-ball captains, he's peerless, isn't he?
Well, if you look at the numbers, he's way in front of anyone. You go back to the old days of Brearley and Gatting when
one-day cricket was rarely played. They had pretty good records, but nothing like this. He's miles
ahead of everyone in terms of his commitment, his playing record and his leadership. I mean,
he won something. He won a trophy for England. A big trophy and it took a long while longer station
for England, having competed from the start when it was the Prudential Cup. Made a couple
of finals here and there, but he's been stunningly successful. And he is going to be hard to replace,
but it's a pity he's lost a bit of form because he, like a lot of fellas who played hockey,
I might say that he was a pretty good hockey player, turned into an outstanding batsman in
all forms but principally in the white-ball game. He turned things around for England
and made the rest of the players realise that they could win a World Cup and that was an astonishing
achievement as we heard from Jonathan Agnew's commentary in that extraordinary final. So,
as they say, well done him. It is a record that will live for a long, long time.
I can't profess to know him too well, but I do believe that he is a wonderful young man and young man, so good guys
do win. I think that's the big story here because he has led an exemplary life without question.
There is, of course, a Test match championship now. That wasn't always there, and most cricketers
would perhaps during their reign as captain like to claim that was the biggest achievement,
as New Zealand could the first-time round. But even though Jim says that we don't know how much
one-day cricket is likely to be played now because we play so much T20 cricket,
I still feel that the ICC ODI World Cup is the summit, is the Everest of achievement these days
in terms of popularity, and there is therefore no doubt, as you say, he is likely to consider that
his highest achievement. And of course, it came under a spectacular circumstances. That always
helps. I'm sure he'd like to have done much more in red-ball cricket. There's all sorts of T20
success that has come his way, there are personal records, but you know records are and will be broken.
So, it's not permanent, but he will always be the man who led England to their first
ODI World Cup win. That's a very special... well, there's a very special ring to that, isn't there?
Yeah, indeed. I have got to know him over a long period of time and there are certain players
that you really miss, you feel they leave such a huge hole in the game because they have been
ever present, it feels like. And Eoin Morgan, I covered him from when he was playing for Ireland.
Remember at the 2007 World Cup, he represented the Ireland team. He was part of that famous
Irish side that dumped Pakistan out of the World Cup in 2007 in the Caribbean and I recall then,
in the throes of the glows of the after party following that match, sitting poolside back at
their hotel after that night. It was St Patrick's Day as well, so there's a big party going on;
sat there with his dad and he told me then, with that same steely determined look in his eye that
we've got to know as England captain, that he wanted to represent England and he was not shy or
afraid of making that statement in the immediate aftermath of helping Ireland to their biggest
ever win. So, he had that ambition and he carried it out. Charu, anyone other than [Jos] Buttler
to possibly lead the England fifty over side now? Well, considering his spectacular form right now,
obviously he's the right choice. But may I quickly ask you at the end or whatever
I say now, why not Stokes? Because, yes he's a red-ball cricketer, but he is as efficient as
devastating a white-ball cricketer as well. And if you can load him with Test match captaincy,
why not ODI - a white ball captaincy as well? But, you know, why not Buttler? I
think he also has a calm demeanour. To my mind going on positions of course, this is
not really a proven theory, but openers they'd be good captains, because when they're out to
bat they've got their mind focused on the job. And if they're back in the pavilion,
then they've got plenty of time to think about what to do with the batting order.
In the field when you've got the ball, you've got plenty of time again to keep a sharp eye on
what's going on and he has loads of experience. Now finally on Stumped, at just 15 years of age,
Lauren Cheatle was already able to call herself a professional cricketer. At just 17,
she was an international fast bowler making her debut for Australia at the MCG against India. A
long and successful career beckoned. She took time off school to play in the T20 World Cup in 2016
and took 2-13 in her first World Cup match against South Africa. But like many sports stars,
there have been injuries which set her back. She's currently recovering after a fourth shoulder
reconstruction and is hoping to be fit, though, to play for Sydney Sixers in the Big Bash League
in a few months' time. So we thought we'd catch up with Lauren and see how she is doing. Lauren,
welcome to Stumped. Tell us where you are at the moment, and how is the injury rehab going?
Hello. Thank you so much for having me. I'm currently in our new centre at Cricket New South
Wales in Sydney. We only opened on Monday, so it's really exciting to talk to you from here. But,
yeah, recovering from a fourth reconstruction and seven months in, but looking really good.
And I'm hoping it's the last one and I'm ready to go for the start of season.
Yeah. Give us a brief history of those injuries. I mean four shoulder reconstructions! When and
where did they initially start? I suppose they're old netball injuries, of all things. I dislocated
them both when I was playing netball when I was younger and then got into professional cricket
and probably wasn't strong enough at aged 15 to recover from them properly and dove a bit wrong in
the field one time and dislocated my left shoulder and had a lot of trouble with that. I had that
done in 2017 and had it done again in 2018, and then had an issue with my right shoulder and had
that done 2020 then again last year in 2021. So not the best run of injury form, but yes, as I said,
hoping it's the last one and I don't have to deal with them anymore.
How do you feel you have to have learnt to manage with injuries? Does it get a little easier now because you know the
deal and what the rehab from a reconstruction involves and what's the mental approach you take?
Yeah, I suppose there's two sides to that. One, the really good side is I know what's coming and
I know that the steps I need to take to get back onto the field. But the other part is I have to
do it again, and that's really frustrating to come to and I suppose, like the good thing I
know what's coming and it's not always easy and it probably isn't always going to go right. I'm
trying my best to stay positive and thinking of little steps and how to get back on the
field rather than trying to get back straight away, looking at little goals to get there.
I've been really lucky to have the support network I have around Cricket New South Wales
and the Sydney Sixers, my family, my friends, my team-mates have all been amazing. I'm only
23 and I feel I have been through quite a lot and it's made me quite resilient in my sport and
hopefully, it's set me up for another good ten years. 23, yes. It's Jim Maxwell also in Sydney.
Nice to talk to you Lauren about all of this and it looks very positive. Just talk about coming
into the game at such a young age and playing for your country. What was that like for you and
how did you keep your feet on the ground when it all occurred?
It was amazing, but to be honest, I don't really remember it all. It was so
exciting and fun at the time. It was a bit of a whirlwind and I was living in the moment and
didn't realise how young and important and huge it was at the time. Looking back at it now,
not being in the international set up and a missing quite a lot of cricket, I wish I kind of
held on to those moments a little bit more. I was still in school playing for Australia, which is
looking back on it really something we're really proud of and the set up was completely different
to what it is now. As I said, we're in a full time facility for female athletes
as well as our male counterparts and I know when I started, we were training two days a week for
a couple of hours each night at the SCG and that was it and then a couple of games at the weekend. Now,
we have a full 12 game fixture for New South Wales, which is huge and it's changing and
growing in leaps and bounds. We see our Australian cricketers is showing the way in
World Cups and professionalism and the programme. It's really awesome to be part of and I'm so lucky
that I've seen... I've only been a part of cricket for eight or nine years, but to see the growth
in that time has been huge and it's so exciting to see where the next ten years are going to go.
You say you had a different life to your friends at school. Did you finish school?
I did. I did a lot of my exams on the road. I did a few in Sri Lanka and a few in India. I was at
the World Cup in India when I was doing my HSC (Higher Secondary School Certificate), which
was a bit different to my school mates, but my school and my teachers were really supportive
of my cricket career and made a few exemptions to me along the way which was really lucky for
that probably really help me to finish and graduate school on time with my classmates.
I'm very lucky in that fact and I'm hugely grateful for the opportunities my school and cricket gave me..
You haven't played for Australia for three years. Have you had withdrawal symptoms in that time?
Definitely. Watching them succeed on the TV, it's been awesome. I want nothing more
than to be back in there, but that team is so good and it's going to be so hard to crack into, so
to see the players that have the opportunity and are succeeding is so exciting. And
as a fan of cricket I'm absolutely loving where the women are going, and how they are playing the
game. So yeah, I would love to play in there again but if not, the fan in me is loving women and
the Australian cricket team. Lauren, hi. This is Charu Sharma in New Delhi his time round in
India. I understand that you've had more serious health scares in your life other than the shoulder
injuries and both you personally as well as for your loved ones as well. Would you mind telling
us more about that very unfortunate situation? Yeah. Last year, it's pretty much a year ago
this month, I was diagnosed with skin cancer - a melanoma in my shin - which for someone at 23 is
probably a bit unusual, but as you said, as well in my family, both my parents had melanomas and
cancer scares as well. So it wasn't something new to me, but as I said a 23-year-old,
it's something I really wasn't expecting. And as again, I was so lucky to get it when I did. I had
two operations, one on my shin and one in my groin to get the lymph nodes to see if it had spread
past my leg. Thank goodness it hadn't and I'm very lucky in that account, but it was definitely an
eye opening experience for me and it kind of put cricket into perspective for me as well. I was
in a pretty tough place from my health point of view and it turned cricket into a love again. I
feel like I may have lost it a little bit through injury and just trying to recover and play and
it was a sport, but it was kind of my life in everything revolved around cricket, but
going through that little health scare it became just a sport again and something I love to do.
So to come out of it and be healthy and happy is good, but also made me enjoy cricket more.
That's extraordinary to hear what you've already gone through at just 23.
What are you thinking about when you look to the future? I know you also do
some work for an organisation called What Ability. Tell us a bit more about that, what is it exactly?
Yeah. So What Ability was my second love next to cricket. It's a Disability Support Service
and what's unique about What Ability is they use part time and full time athletes
as their support workers to try and break down that barrier and stigma around working with
people with disabilities, so I'm so excited to be involved and one of their support workers and they're
going leaps and bounds in where they are in the country. We just opened up in Perth,
we're in Queensland, we want to go international in providing support for those that need it and
again, a bit like my health scare, it's kind of put cricket again into
perspective and I am so lucky to be doing what I'm doing. And I also get to go to work the next day,
work with a participant and they know nothing about cricket and they couldn't care less if
I've taken five wickets, if I've gone for 50 runs. They do not care, they just wanna have
a good time and go out for the day. So that's probably my favourite part about working with
them and I'm also giving joy to those that have so many barriers in their life already.
Lauren, it's great to hear the smile in your voice and the love of cricket having been reignited
as well. So, we wish you all the best with the continued rehab with the shoulder and look forward
to seeing you back on the park soon. Thanks for being with us on Stumped.
Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. That is Australian fast bowler, Lauren Cheatle. Now that is it for
us on this week's Stumped programme, so I'll say thank you to Charu Sharma, Jim Maxwell and of course
to all of you for listening. Make sure you join us again next week. Until then. Bye for now.