World Cup revenge, Olympics dream keeps Mooney motivated
Beth Mooney has some big targets in her sights • Getty Images
Veteran batter and wicketkeeper Beth Mooney is a star performer of the Australia women's team and there's plenty of incentive for her to continue well beyond her 100th ODI.
Mooney, 32, will reach the milestone in the third and final one-day international against Bangladesh at Allan Border Field on Wednesday. She is seventh on the all-time Australia aggregate list in ODIs with a stellar 3288 runs at an average of 49.81, including six centuries.
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Last year's loss to India in the World Cup semi-finals still sticks in the craw Australia previously lost the crown in 2017 when England beat India in the final and that was a big driver for Mooney and the Australians to win back the trophy in 2022, which they did. Now it's a case of deja vu after what transpired last year.
"I think there was a lot of bitter disappointment from that World Cup loss in India 12 months ago now, and looking ahead we've obviously come off a T20 World Cup win, we've got a Champions Trophy, there are a lot of ICC events and Ashes series and big series coming up," Mooney said.
"But the 50-over one is what you want to win as well, so I guess the motivation for me now is to play well enough in the next few years to put my hand up for selection in that [2029] World Cup, but also contribute in a positive way into a format of the game that is constantly changing and evolving."
Cricket will be played at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and likely again in 2032 in Brisbane, Mooney's home town these days. She will be 38 in 2032 but don't discount her still being around.
"Certainly the Olympics is definitely an enticing one for players to hang around a bit longer," Mooney said. "We're obviously seeing the game a bit more modern and are remunerated well, so it's probably more likely people will start retiring a bit later. But I think the exciting part is there's always something on the calendar, so it'd be pretty hard to retire at this point."
Mooney said that if she was still performing and contributing to the success of team that a swan song in 2032 was on the table.
"Hopefully I'm still around, but that's a long way away," she said. "There's a lot of cricket to be played between now and then, a lot of tournaments to play with this Australian team and in franchise cricket, so my main focus is to contribute as much as I can to those, and also help the younger players along the way as well."
Current openers Georgia Voll and Phoebe Litchfield, who added 162 inside 20 overs in the nine-wicket win over Bangladesh in game two of the series, are two young guns changing the way the game is played.
"I guess that's what excited me the most, is the fact that the 50-over game is becoming a lot more modern, and we're seeing Phoebe and Georgia really take the game on," Mooney said. "Who knows how many runs we might be able to score in a 50-over game one day? That's sort of driving me at the moment."
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