Wished my arm was broken just so I could take a break, reveals Glenn Maxwell

During a hostile nets session before Australia’s final group game at the ODI World Cup in England, against South Africa, both Maxwell and top-order batsman Shaun Marsh were struck. Sitting in the hospital, waiting for the results to show up, Maxwell’s mind began wishing that the scan showed a broken arm for him and no problems for his colleague. Little did the star all-rounder know that he was battling mild depression and anxiety inside. 

“We went to the hospital together and we were both sitting there, I think both hoping for opposite news. When I got hit, I was angry and a part of me was hoping (my arm) was broken. I was like ‘this is it, I just need a break’... I was thinking about things I could do on the way back to snap it. I had anger at other people and it didn’t make sense, but I was angry at myself for not being able to produce at all this World Cup,” Maxwell told the Ordineroli Speaking podcast with Neroli Meadows.

But after the Aussies took an unassailable 2-0 lead against Sri Lanka, Maxwell told head coach Justin Langer, and later to his teammates, that he would be taking a break.

“I was about to announce it to the group, they had no idea what was going on. I went over to him (Finch) and said ‘I’m done, I’m going to have a bit of time off’, and he said he noticed something was up. Once I told him, he was like, ‘brave decision, well done’. Once everyone left, I broke down into tears, it was more...that was the first time I showed any emotion...since the World Cup,” Maxwell said. 

“Those next two or three days were probably the worst I’d had in the next six months. As much as support was great, it was also so confronting...I wanted to go further into my little hole and not come out. I felt like I was letting a lot of people down, I felt like I was taking an easy-out, I didn’t know what I was doing,” Maxwell added.

On his return, he captained the Melbourne Stars to a BBL final and was named in the BBL’s team of the tournament. Recently, the great entertainer got engaged to long-time partner Vini Raman.