The whole team is just incredibly supportive of Meg Lanning and hopes very much that her welfare is okay: Ellyse Perry

Meg Lanning and Ellyse Perry (Photo Source: Kelly Defina/Getty Images)

Ellyse Perry applauded the guts of Meg Lanning at an event after the former Australia captain recently revealed that she was battling an eating disorder in a bid to help others struggling with the concerning issue.

Perry and Lanning were two of the pillars of the Australian women’s cricket team over the past decade. The latter retired in November last year, but Perry continues playing for the national team. Lanning and Perry were part of a whopping seven World title-winning campaigns. The former cricketer revealed earlier this month in an interview that she had been having an unhealthy obsession with exercise and not eating enough food to fuel herself. She said that these bad habits factored in her retirement from international cricket.

“(Exercise) became a bit of an obsession. It was because I could escape mentally. I would throw the headphones in (and) I wouldn’t take my phone with me. I would have my Apple Watch with me and listen to music. Nobody could contact me. I really liked that because I felt like I was in control. I felt like I was eating. I was still eating. But I’m much more aware of it now. I was not eating enough. I’d eat maybe a couple of meals a day if I was lucky and they weren’t significant. It didn’t start off as a deliberate thing. It just became a bit of a new normal,” Lanning told The Howie Games podcast.

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Speaking about the revelation from Lanning, legendary all-rounder Perry said that the entire team was in support of her and lauded her bravery for coming out in the open to express her problems.

“I think as a teammate of Megs (Lanning), first and foremost, the whole team is just incredibly supportive of her and hopes very much that … her welfare is okay, and her wellbeing. That’s the most important thing,” Perry said at the MCG at the launch of CA’s Women and Girls Action Plan, which has set massive growth targets for women’s cricket over the next decade.

“It’s obviously incredibly brave for her to come out and speak about those things, and I’m sure, in doing so, she hopes that that helps other people as well who experience similar things across their time. It’s obviously really hard to hear that as a teammate and to know that someone that you’ve played with so closely for a long period of time has had some struggles. But at the same time, I really hope she’s doing well and, I guess, has access to the appropriate care that she needs,” Perry added.

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While Lanning retired from international cricket last year, she has continued playing in franchise tournaments. She recently led Delhi Capitals to the final of the second season of Women’s Premier League (WPL) earlier this year. While Perry finished as the highest run-getter in the tournament with 347 runs from nine matches at an average of 69.40, Lanning finished second with 331 runs at 36.78.