Former Australian pacer Peter Siddle, who announced his retirement from international cricket on December 29 last year, opened about his alcoholic past, including the time his wife walked in on him when he was with another woman.
In a podcast episode of Ordineroli Speaking, Siddle said he was throwing his life away before he decided to change himself as things went out of hand.
During the podcast, Siddle said that his partner Anna, who is his wife now, caught him once while he was with someone else. “That was when I broke down. Yes, I’d f***ed up, but I knew that I wanted her to be in my life,” Siddle told the podcast.
Named ICC Emerging Player of the Year in 2009, Siddle faced numerous injury issues over the course of his career. He rose to prominence during the 2010-2011 Ashes series in which he took a Test hat-trick. Many of his critics blamed his vegan diet that he adopted in 2012 for the dip in his performance.
Siddle spoke of his relationship with Anna and the possibility of losing her made him shrug off his drinking demons for good. The right-hander said that while he begged his girlfriend, he had also realized that things needed to change. Siddle revealed that his struggles with alcohol began during the initial days of his Test career, which saw him lead a ‘double life’.
“I begged her to death, but also, I knew things had to change then. I was living two lives in a way. I was living the party boy life and trying to be a cricketer,” Siddle said.
