Cricket star Megan Schut’s priorities change as she embraces family life

When ABC Sportlast sat down with Megan Schut in June 2019, her goal was to be the best bowler in the world.

A month later, she achieved this feat after a successful Ashes tour that took her from fourth place in the ICC Women’s One Day International rankings to back at the top.

Now, three to four years later, Schut’s priorities have well and truly changed.

“Look, I’d still like to be No. 1, but that doesn’t guarantee we’re going to win cricket games,” Schutt said.

– I went through a little spot there where I took a lot of points, we dominated and that was just part of it.

“Today, our team is still in control, and if I float in the top ten, I’ll be satisfied.”

The 30-year-old Australian opening bowler is still well and truly in the pack, ranked fourth in the world in ODIs and fifth in T20Is.

He has achieved impressive milestones over the past 12 months. He has taken his 100th T20I wicket on the tour of Ireland and won his first international 5-fa series against Pakistan.

Schutt was part of the winning teams at the Under-50 Women’s Cricket World Cup in New Zealand last April and the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in August.

In November, she was also experiencing success on the domestic circuit, winning a maiden Women’s Big Bash title with the Adelaide Strikers and becoming the first bowler to take a 6-fa in the competition’s history.

But when all these accomplishments are pointed at Schutt, he doesn’t seem fazed. See, the goalposts have simply moved since she became a mother in late 2021.

After going through a grueling back-to-back IVF process with his wife Jess, their daughter Rylee was born three months early due to pregnancy complications.

The trio spent the next 50 days in hospital as Rylee fought for survival in intensive care.

The difficult transition to parenthood caused Schutt to miss the home series against India to be with his wife and baby. It was the first time he missed a tour of Australia since 2014.

While Schutt hated the interference and couldn’t stand watching the team on TV, he knows his decision to take that time away from the game and focus on his family was undoubtedly the right call.

Now, with a very happy and healthy Rylee inching toward her second birthday on Aug. 17, Schutt is far less concerned with ticking off individual accolades.

Instead, she chooses to channel the dogged determination that saw her break into the Australian team and earn a reputation as one of the world’s fiercest fast bowlers into being a great mother and trying to find a better work-life balance.

“It just changes your whole perspective on life. You have all these emotions you didn’t know were possible before and suddenly the most important thing is to protect and look after your child, so cricket kind of takes a back seat.

“It’s my job and I absolutely love it, but at the end of the day, as long as my loved ones are taken care of, that’s my main purpose in life now and you kind of see that they consume every thought rather than cricket, which is nice.

“We can be quite hard on ourselves as cricketers. I think we are very picky people who can focus on the negative because our game is largely full of failures, so it takes that side of cricket away and makes the negative days less negative.”

Having a busy toddler home after a long day on the field has grounded Schutt, giving him the ultimate distraction from the pressures of his career and a better perspective.

“Seeing Ryle after a loss makes the feeling go away, even though it sounds like it,” Schutt said.

“You kind of forget about it when you get home and mom mode kicks in because you have a kid to take care of and you don’t really have time to analyze everything. Then you just come to work the next day.

“I think that’s the best thing about it; you don’t take your emotions home with you on these hard days, and that’s probably why cricket doesn’t keep me up in the middle of the night anymore.”

In addition to what becoming a mother has done to her life and the way she sees the world, Schutt says she admires her wife as a mother to the role of Rylee, which she believes Jess was born to play.

“Jess is naturally the most nurturing person and has wanted to be a mother since she was a child,” she said.

“She’s extremely selfless, probably sometimes to her detriment, but watching her perform her motherly duties is better than I ever expected. It’s an incredible feeling.

“I think I’m also quite caring, but before the baby I don’t think I showed that side of me to many people. Now it definitely comes out a bit more.”

Referring to his decision to skip the 2021 tour of India, Schutt hinted that he is likely to have to make a similar choice between career and family again in the near future.

So the big question is, are more kids on the cards?

– It’s always difficult to talk about the future, you just don’t know what’s coming, but I believe that we will have more children, whether it’s one or two, which we don’t know for sure yet.

“I’d love to play until I go to Australia or until one of the up-and-coming players steals my place. Then I’d focus on domestic cricket. But as long as I can support my family, that’s all that matters.”

Megan Schutt will play for the Australian women’s cricket team in the upcoming T20 World Cup in South Africa.

The team will be looking to secure their third consecutive title after lifting the trophy in front of a record 86,174 people in Melbourne at the last tournament.