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Glenn Maxwell comes to the end of our interview in his local cafe, the morning after arriving home from a victorious World Cup odyssey as part of Pat Cummins’ team.
He walks up to the counter to pay for a couple of coffees, only to be told that another customer has already paid for them and left a message. “Thank you on behalf of Australia,” the barista says, as Maxwell breaks into a grin.
The World Cup confirmed Glenn Maxwell as one of Australia’s greatest limited-overs players.Credit: Getty Images
“That’s a bit different to being called ‘the No Show’ as I’m walking down the street!”
But it really has been that sort of a seismic event for Australia’s cricketers, and Maxwell in particular. The World Cup triumph, defying expectations and a formidable Indian side, has allowed the team to make the leap from good to great.
Maxwell was a key contributor with his canny bowling, agile fielding and, of course, an unforgettable double century to beat Afghanistan and ensure qualification for the semi-finals of the tournament. It feels like his defining achievement.
Still battling the aftermath of a badly broken left leg last year, Maxwell speaks with candour about the unseen battles to keep limber from game to game, and the considerable irony that a “scary” concussion he suffered after falling off the back of a buggy at the end of a team golf day actually allowed him the rest he needed to save his best for the back end of the event.
Maxwell celebrates after making a World Cup double century despite debilitating cramps.Credit: AP
He also maintains his belief that there can be some Test-match achievements still to come, namely on the 2025 tour of Sri Lanka, a place where he came so close to adding to his seven appearances in a baggy green cap last year.
Last, Maxwell offers a warm insight into exactly how Cummins galvanised the team, extracting a series of doughty performances from his men and capping it off with a tactical masterpiece in the final against India.
‘I’ll never have to worry about working post-cricket’
After a decade of raking in rich sums from the Indian Premier League, Maxwell is free to focus on the cricketing assignments he most wants to devote himself to.
Whether that be the Melbourne Stars (where he has consistently accepted modest contracts to leave cap room for other players) or Royal Challengers Bangalore (where he took a half a million-dollar pay cut for the same reasons), Maxwell has been able to prioritise Australian duty and his enduring hope for more Tests.
“I’ve been extremely fortunate with circumstances over the past 10-11 years, where the IPL has taken incredibly good care of me and it’s put me in a position financially where I probably will never have to worry about working post-cricket ever again,” he says.
“It almost gives you that peace of mind that you don’t have to go around and play these other T20 competitions – you can invest time in other areas. When you look back at last year when I was close to my Test spot in Sri Lanka, that was a big part of it as well, having that comfort [of] just the one franchise at RCB, I was so comfortable with my game off the field, and it felt like I was playing good cricket for Australia at the time as well. And it probably goes back to the COVID series in England [in 2020] where I found a real sweet spot where my game was – consistency.
“As any player gets with maturity and age, I’ve worked out how to play the game, what good preparation is, and I found that time almost built into that series, gave me an opportunity to work on things that were really important. The way we structure the Australian side now, we’re encouraged to own our own preparation, and they’ve put a pretty heavy emphasis on ‘do what you need to do to get ready, and trust in that’.”
Maxwell raises the cup with David Warner.Credit: AP
While acknowledging that Australia’s tendency to play white-ball series either side of the home Tests and Big Bash League means he is unlikely to play the Sheffield Shield games that might push him up the queue for Test places in Australian conditions, Maxwell knows south Asia is different.
“It’s pretty clear that I’ve always had a pretty solid game in subcontinent conditions and it’s been something that has developed since my first tour over there [in 2013],” he says. “The way I’ve played spin bowling in subcontinent conditions, with being a little bit more aggressive and putting pressure on the opposition, has been something appealing to the selectors over time.
“Just the fact I was able to be on the Sri Lanka tour last year is a sign they still have me in their thoughts and see me as an option. Regardless of whether I played one or 30 games in red-ball cricket, I’m still going to be an option to go over there. I think that’s why 2025 in Sri Lanka is something I’ve put in my calendar as something I’m hopeful to be a part of, and not giving up hope that my Test cricket’s done. If I can get there and hopefully be good enough to take part in the series.”
‘We were lucky it wasn’t worse’
Amid the hubbub of his miracle innings against Afghanistan and Australia’s subsequent World Cup victory, only now has Maxwell spoken about the “golf-cart incident”.
The concussion he suffered after losing his grip on the golf buggy at the end of day one of the “Jesse Ryder Cup” teams event he organised with David Warner for Australia’s mid-tournament break in Ahmedabad could easily have ended his World Cup if more serious.
But, as it was, the seven days off enforced by concussion protocols gave his battered left leg a rest that he used to great effect against Afghanistan and afterwards. Even so, Maxwell’s lack of recall of the event still scares him a little.
“What happened is no secret – it’s just that when I hit my head I’ve still got some memory loss,” he says.
“It was quite strange, I was still trying to piece it together because I had no idea what happened. I remember, really clearly, everything that happened during the day and the moment I was giving a speech after the day’s play and talking about the singles matches we had the next day.
“But the next thing I remember is I was holding my head on the bus. So it was a bit scary having a bit of time lost from my timeline, and I’ve only heard bits and pieces from the doc and the physio. They were on the cart about 80 metres behind us, so they were first on the scene and explained to me what happened. It was an extremely unfortunate, unlucky incident and, from what I can tell, I was lucky it wasn’t worse.”
Maxwell’s astonishing reverse slap for six during his double century against Afghanistan at the World Cup.Credit: Nine.
The concussion diagnosis took place once the team had returned to their hotel and Maxwell came back to meet medical staff to get patched up for a cut on the back of his head.
“There was a bit of a cut on the back of my head, so he glued that, and then he was speaking and asking me questions and I couldn’t concentrate on him,” Maxwell says.
“I said, ‘I don’t know what concussion feels like, but I imagine it’s a bit like this.’ I wasn’t doing the maths in my head with how many days it was, but I thought if I could get on top of it straight away and say ‘let’s get ahead of this’ and make sure we start the protocols, hopefully it doesn’t affect us going forward. One game is better than three.
“I was a bit emotionless about the whole incident because I didn’t know what happened. It wasn’t like I felt ‘I’ve stuffed up big time here’ because I couldn’t remember it, so I was like ‘well, I feel a bit helpless.’ I was disappointed to be out, but I didn’t have any real feelings about the incident, which was also strange and probably part of the concussion side of it as well. The doc told me that might be a side effect.
“So when it came to the Afghanistan game I wasn’t really thinking about it too much. It was more getting back into the rhythm of the tournament and making sure I carried on from where I was going in the Netherlands game – doing what I do best in the middle.”
‘He was probably our player of the tournament’
What happened next, of course, is exceedingly well-documented. Ricky Ponting has called it the most remarkable one-day innings he has seen, and it can stand comparison with the best ever.
For Maxwell, the double hundred in Mumbai provides a nice window into the mind of Cummins and how he led Australia to glory: equal parts calm, determined and intelligent.
“He jokes that his strike rate is ruined for the rest of his career,” Maxwell says. “But that’s the thing, stats only tell half the story and in my mind that’ll go down as one of his best-ever innings. That was such an important innings to show to the rest of the side that ‘I’m going to set my mind on this and make sure I stick it out for the team.’
“That’s not the way Pat normally bats. He wants to play free-flowing, he wants to hit the ball, he’s got a great swing, and he’s able to do that at different times. But for him to put his ego aside and go ‘I’m going to stick this out’, I’ll forever be grateful for things he sacrificed during the tournament and everything he’s done for us as a playing group, and me personally as well. He’s just one of the guys you want to play for, and you want him to have success.”
Pressed for a specific memory of how Cummins led the team, Maxwell starts by saying that while the captain is an accomplished orator, “I’m also not great at listening.”
But after some more thought, he recollects a message to the players at the outset of the tournament, contrasting a World Cup to the Ashes battle just fought in England.
“Before the tournament where we talked about our values and the things we’re going to be focusing on, he ran that really well,” Maxwell says. “I remember very specifically him saying that you don’t just get given the World Cup. You’ve got to go out and win it. That stuck with me – no one deserves to win the World Cup, it’s not yours to retain or yours to lose. You’ve got to go out and win it, and I think that helped with a positive mindset.
“You think back to things like ‘Zamps’ getting 20-odd and fighting it out to the end and giving us a total against England, or Patty facing 68 balls against Afghanistan’s spin, just realising you’ve got to fight for a little bit longer here, for a little bit longer than the opposition to get the result. There were so many moments like that where we felt like we fought a little bit longer, a little bit harder, to make sure we got the result.”
Maxwell and skipper Pat Cummins embrace after the Afghanistan win.Credit: Getty Images
And there’s one other moment Maxwell thinks back to amid the euphoria of winning the tournament: The anti-climax of waiting for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to shake hands with all members of the team before they could join Cummins with the World Cup they had all been striving for.
“It was quite funny watching the videos of the post-match presentation where he shook Modi’s hand and was stuck there on the podium,” Maxwell says. “It felt like that lasted for about 10 minutes, him just standing there with the trophy waiting for the group to come on.
“But he actually dealt with it with class. He didn’t make a big song and dance about it, [he] just thought ‘you know what, I’ll wait here, be respectful.’ Not everyone would’ve dealt with that like he did.”
This is not to say that Cummins is just a capable frontman. For Maxwell, the captain also had a hand in winning more matches than any other player.
“The stats might not say it but he was probably our player of the tournament, just for the impacts he had at different stages,” Maxwell says. “You look at the partnerships he had, the impact he had against Sri Lanka … he was the one to make the breakthroughs.
“[Against] Afghanistan he was the one to stick around with me at the other end, [in the] semi-final he was there hitting the winning runs at the end, [in] the final he was the one who changed the plans to go to that short ball and slower ones without a mid-off to Kohli and KL Rahul. It was just extraordinary tactical awareness.
“Those little moments I look back on and think that was absolutely brilliant, and I don’t think he got enough recognition for how good he was through the whole tournament. It wasn’t just his bowling or batting, it was a multitude of different things that he was able to contribute. It just puts a smile on my face thinking back, and just that journey from after those [first] two games.”
That smile, one might think, will not be leaving Maxwell’s face for some time yet.
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