Gardner sticks to her guns on and off the field
Ashleigh Gardner has revealed she went through "dark days" after a social media backlash to her stance on Australia Day.
Gardner took a career-best 5-12 as the all-conquering Australian women's cricket team opened their T20 World Cup title defence with a commanding 97-run win over New Zealand in Paarl, South Africa.
The 25-year-old offspinner made headlines in January when the proud Indigenous player went public with her discomfort over playing a T20 international against Pakistan on Australia Day.
Gardner said it was a "day of hurt and a day of mourning" for Indigenous Australians and not when the national team should be playing.
At the time, teammate Megan Schutt praised Gardner's courage and called her "a tough little cookie" who would weather the inevitable backlash.
But after her player-of-the-match heroics against New Zealand, Gardner opened up about the aftermath of the controversy.
"Social media has a lot of things," Gardner said. "And I knew when posting that statement that there was going to be backlash.
"I think I underestimated how much I copped. I try my best not to look at all that stuff. But I feel like it's only human nature to read comments and things like that.
"But I guess it was a moment where I stuck to my guns and I put that statement out there because that's what I believed in.
"I just had to stay true to what I said. And I guess I've just tried to flip that and turn it into a positive and it's sparked conversations."
Gardner said regardless of the abuse, she has no regrets about making the statement.
"Not everyone's going to agree with everything that people say and that's totally fine. As long as I changed some people's minds about certain things - whether it's social issues or not," she said.
"So, I guess trying to take the confidence out of that and the support that I had from my team-mates and support staff was huge because it was a couple of dark days there where I was like, 'why did I do that?'
"But knowing that it was for a good cause and then just trying to take that confidence with that going into my cricket as well sticking to my guns with how I play cricket, and then how I act off the field as well, trying to keep them pretty close together."
Gardner's delectable change of trajectory in her bowling, on a surface that was used in the England-West Indies fixture earlier in Saturday's double-header, ensured Australia's title defence began with huge momentum.
