Unexpected 'gap year' fuels Mott's fire

Initially devastated next year's ODI World Cup had been postponed, Australia coach Matthew Mott now believes his team will be hungrier than ever for the one piece of silverware missing from their trophy cabinet.

The quadrennial 50-over tournament has never been far from the minds of Mott or the players minds since their shock semi-final loss at the last event in 2017, courtesy of Harmanpreet Kaur's blazing 171no.

That defeat sent shockwaves through the Australian camp and triggered a dramatic attitude change in the world's No.1 ranked team to be bolder and more brave, a shift that saw them claim the two T20 World Cups held since.

Now, Australia must wait an extra 12 months for their next date with destiny, but Mott has been quick to find the upside.

With the world in the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic, perspective has been easy to gain.

"We were devastated to have that World Cup pushed back," Mott conceded to cricket.com.au this week.

"Since 2017, that is what has motivated us.

"Pushing it back has changed the dynamic a bit, but it gives us a bit of extra time to work out how we want to play the next two to three years.

"This (pandemic) is a life-changing experience for everyone and it makes you appreciate just how lucky we are, to be in the jobs we're in.

"If anything, it's added to the delight I have to be in this role."

Mott's contract as Australia's head coach was renewed late last year until the end of that 2021 World Cup, which had been due to finish on March 7 next year.

When the Australian coach, who has been in the job since 2015, spoke to cricket.com.au in the aftermath of the T20 World Cup earlier this year, he admitted to being unsure of whether he would continue in the top job once that campaign in New Zealand was complete.

Such has been the focus for the Australian coach and his team since 2017 – to one, win the T20 World Cup on home soil, and then to right the wrongs of 2017 – that it has been hard for any of them to think beyond early 2021.

Mott's reflections on March 9 also came hot on the heels of a frenetic 17-day tournament where Australia rode an emotional rollercoaster of pressure, scrutiny, injury, exhaustion and finally exhilaration after claiming the trophy in front of 86,174 people at the MCG.

All of that after the busiest 18-month period in the team's history, where far more nights were spent living out of a suitcase than in the comfort of home.

Then, the COVID-19 pandemic plunged the world into lockdown, and what had already loomed as an appetisingly slow-paced off-season after hectic spell on the road suddenly became even quieter.

A tour of South Africa was postponed indefinitely, annual winter camps were cancelled and The Hundred, where Mott had been due to coach the Welsh women's team, was also put on hold for a year.

Valuable time at home with wife Taryn and their two children, Jai and Milla, has now given Mott a chance to reflect and recalibrate.

Image Id: AAE2199B2EDD476482828A8C03A101F3 Image Caption: Australia celebrate in the middle of the MCG after winning the T20 World Cup // Nick Price, cricket.com.au

What he has discovered is a definite hunger to remain in the job he loves, despite what he concedes will be ongoing challenges in the new 'COVID-normal' of travel bubbles and biosecurity.

"I just got off the phone to Justin Langer and he's about to embark on a long time away and we know travel for the next couple of years is going to be difficult and in hubs, with the back end of tours in quarantine," Mott said.

"That's going to be an ongoing part of the job that's not the most fun part.

"But the time I had to reflect, that I hadn't had for a long time, in many ways lengthened my appetite to stay involved.

"This almost feels like a bit of a gap year, the last six months, we don't have a lot of cricket between now and Christmas either.

"The way the players have trained by themselves in isolation, I think that shows we've got a really good culture set up here and you want to be a part of it for a bit longer.

"We've got a number of players who are at their peak or just ready to (hit it).

"We want to play … this is certainly the longest I've gone without playing or coaching, and I can't wait to get back out there and remember what it's like."

Mott said no formal discussions about extending his contract beyond next March had yet been held, with attention rightly focused on organising a summer of cricket during a pandemic.

That schedule includes Australia's upcoming limited-overs series against New Zealand, due to begin late next month.

But one thing he does know is that he wants to be Australia's coach when that delayed tournament finally rolls around in early 2022.

"It's certainly not high on the agenda of things to do right now, there's plenty of things to do in our organisation, so it's pretty much business as usual at the moment," Mott explained.

"When the time is right, I'll sit down with (CA's Executive General Manager of National Teams) Ben Oliver and have a discussion around what things look like not just for the next year, but the next couple of years.

"We're still waiting on what the Future Tours Programme will look like.

"There's the one-day World Cup, the 2022 Commonwealth Games and another T20 World Cup all in close succession.

"So, when we get a bit of breathing space we'll sit down to see what that looks like for everyone."

Image Id: 3ED5CC13630B4C408EA5B9D3C3126C16 Image Caption: Mott with Australia captain Meg Lanning // Getty

Mott is not the only member of the Australian Women's Cricket Team who may have wondered if that ODI World Cup campaign in New Zealand might mark the right time to consider their future.

But he expects his senior players to be equally revived by a year spent mostly at home, and no doubt enticed by the prospect of a jam-packed run of major events could begin with an Ashes on home soil in the 2021-22 summer.

The rescheduled 2022 ODI World Cup in New Zealand will follow, before women's cricket debuts at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham midway through the same year.

The next T20 World Cup, to be held in South Africa, is presently also pencilled in for – you guessed it – 2022.

"I certainly have touched in with a couple of players to see how they're going and everyone handles it differently," Mott said.

"A couple were frustrated by it, there's no doubt about that.

"But there's so many people in society who are battling and out of work and if the worst thing for you is that you hang on to playing for Australia for a year longer than you planned and you're training in a nice environment and you're in paid work, it's just an incredible opportunity and it's that's the realisation a lot of them have got to.

"Then there's the extra carrot of all the cricket to come after that (World Cup) ... I'm not sure what everyone is thinking, but if anyone was thinking they might have finished after that event, it gives them that opportunity to look at the Comm Games and think if they can keep fit and ready to go and have that appetite to keep going, there's a lot that can be achieved in a short space of time."