Six months after winding down his international career, former Australia fast bowler Peter Siddle has opened up on his troubled past, stemming from his issues with alcohol that nearly derailed his Test career before it could fully take flight.

Making the revelation on journalist and presenter Neroli Meadows’ podcast, Ordineroli Speaking, Siddle revisited a time in his life that had been taken over by the bottle, resulting in “25-30 drinks” for days at a stretch.

“I was pretty much borderline alcoholic in a way,” Siddle said. “If I said I was a binge drinker, it makes it sound better and look better for everyone else.

“People probably listen to it and go, ‘Oh yeah, but you only had drinks on the weekend’, but sometimes weekends could be three, four, five days in a row.”

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Siddle made an instant impact after arriving as a fearsomely fast bowler, pinging Gautam Gambhir on the head on Test debut and dismissing Sachin Tendulkar for his first Test wicket.

But before long, he fizzled out after being afflicted with a long line of injuries that affected his pace, and soon was out of favour with a selection committee that prioritised speed over accuracy. Siddle admitted to throwing it all away with his reckless ways.

“I was living two lives in a way. I was living the party boy life and trying to be a cricketer,” he said. “Not just a cricketer who rocks up on the weekend and plays 40 overs and then hangs out with the boys. I was an Australian cricketer, at the time pretty much close to the peak of my powers, and I was throwing it all away.”

[caption id=”attachment_115475″ align=”alignnone” width=”800″] Peter Siddle made a return to the Test side during the 2019 Ashes[/caption]

At the height of his troubles, Siddle once drove for nearly an hour after a day out drinking, and it took frantic calls from concerned friends to his father, who drove nearly two hours to check on his son.

The realisation that he needed to mend his ways came after Siddle’s now wife and then partner, Anna Weatherlake, once found him in his room with a stranger, and Siddle said that was the moment he knew he needed to change for the better.

“That was when I broke down,” he said. “Yes, I’d f***ed up, but I knew that I wanted her to be in my life,” he said. “I begged her to death, but also, I knew things had to change then.”

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Siddle made wholesale changes to his lifestyle, including turning vegan, and has stayed away from the bottle for eight years now.

He went on to play 67 Tests for Australia and is a member of their elusive 200-wicket Test club. He earned a stunning recall during the 2019 Ashes series in England, after spending nearly a year out of the side, and took seven wickets in three games, before announcing his retirement during last year’s Boxing Day Test against New Zealand.