Mortlake's Georgia Wareham wins third Twenty20 World Cup with Australia

The Mortlake-raised Wareham and the Australian team defeated South Africa at home by 19 runs, to claim the 2023 ICC Women's Twenty20 World Cup - Wareham's third T20 world-cup win after Australia's 2018 and 2020 victories.

Lamont, who coached and played alongside the 23-year-old leg-spinner at Mortlake, always knew she would succeed in her chosen sport.

"She's done really well," he said.

"(She) certainly hasn't exceeded our expectations, we always thought she'd go on and achieve big things but to win three world cups now it's unreal really.

"She had unbelievable talent obviously but just had a good work ethic and always wanted to learn and just never stopped practising. It didn't matter what sport, she'd always be playing sport with the boys whether it was footy or cricket.

"She's just a talented sportsman and there's no surprise what she's done really. She's obviously put Mortlake on the map with her cricket and we're grateful."

Wareham was, somewhat surprisingly, parachuted into the Australian squad in January after just one game of cricket in 14 months after rupturing her ACL playing for the Melbourne Renegades in October 2021.

"She walked straight back into the team after her knee injury and I knew she had a few doubts whether she would get back in as quick as she did but they obviously rate her fairly high to put her straight back in," Lamont said.

Although it wasn't Wareham's day in the final - her figures were 0-21 off two overs - she played an important role during the tournament, snaring six wickets from as many games.

Her standout moment arrived in a group-stage win against Bangladesh where she claimed 3-20 and was deservedly adjudged player of the match.

Lamont believes Wareham's feats and presence in the community could inspire the next generation of Mortlake sportsmen and women to chase their dreams.

"She comes back to the club all the time so she's not a stranger to the young kids, so she's just another one of us really," he said.

"I suppose it does give confidence to the younger ones that they can achieve their dreams if they put their mind to it.

"It certainly wasn't a fluke, she's put in a lot of hard work, a lot of training and did a lot of kilometres in the car when she was younger."

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