by Sam Dalling
Player of the match in Melbourne in 2015, things have not exactly gone to plan for the allrounder. But even if he never took to the field again, he has plenty to look back on fondly.
James Faulkner would not change a single thing. Not one bit.
Six years ago, the all-rounder was at the MCG holding aloft the Cricket World Cup trophy following Australia’s 2015 World Cup triumph. His 3-36 – including the key wickets of Ross Taylor and Grant Elliot – earned him the player of the match award. Aged just 24, this was meant to be just the start.
Fast-forward two years his Cricket Australia contract was lost and in October 2017 he made what was his last international appearance against India in Nagpur.
Most would forgive him for seeing his glass half empty, but he looks at it differently. “I wouldn’t say darker times,” he tells The Cricketer when asked how the recent past has tested him. “Sometimes mentally it can be really hard,” he admits “but at the same time, it is very hard to get picked at certain times in certain teams around the world. I had a lot of my success a lot earlier than other players. It all comes out in the wash.
“Some players might be 32 or 33 before they start achieving and so I look at it the other way around: I was 19, 20, 21 and winning titles and probably not really understanding how big they were at the time.
Read the full story at The Cricketer.
