So what for the future? Can anybody take the T20 Champions crown off the Aussies? Here are a few ideas for the future for England and the ICC WWT20 competition.
England
- need to find a fearless T20 opening bat - England's best batsmen are Charlotte Edwards and Sarah Taylor and they know they are. They were both desperate not to get out in the final and against the accurate Aussie attack were not prepared to take risks. The first six overs, while the field is up, is the opportunity to score boundaries, but the batsmen need to feel they have licence to hit through the ball and over the top. I would have given Heather Knight this role and put Taylor at 3.
- need to find a T20 power hitter - England need a power hitter floating in the middle order who can come in as required and muscle the ball around. The problem is that there are not many of them around.
- England need to play more T20 cricket - this is the whole of England and not just the current England squad. The current ECB T20 tournament has only a handful of games.
- Big Bash & IPL - the sooner the better for the England girls - need to pit themselves against the best to improve in this format *fingers crossed*
ICC
- combining the men's and the women's tournaments no longer works - the plan is that the 2016 WWT20 will be combined with the men in India; in 2018 it will be a standalone tournament in the West Indies; and then in 2020 it will be combined again in Australia. I hope the ICC review these plans and allow the women's tournament to be a standalone tournament from here on.
If the combined tournaments do go ahead then some changes need to be made:- - the ICC needs to ensure that the games are broadcast - either television and/or radio or, at least, on the internet.
- playing the women's final before the men's does not work - there were big crowds for the women's group games in Sylhet, but almost no-one for the women's semi-finals and finals, before the men's games, in Mirpur. I'd suggest a men's semis/final day and a separate women's semis/finals day.
- the ICC need to stop treating the women's game as a sideshow - the women's game deserves to be treated with the same respect as the men's, including an increase in the prize money.
Right back to my Women's County Championship Preview..............
MD
07/IV/14
England’s loss to Australia was no surprise – England getting to the final was. When this squad was announced there were those (including this correspondent) who expressed concern (on this blog) that the squad addressed none of the obvious batting concerns that were manifest in the 2nd and 3rd T20s in Australia. There was bewilderment as to how replacing Wyatt and Winfield with Beaumont and Wilson would address the issue, Winfield being particularly harshly treated in being dropped. It is not being wise after the event to note that our concerns were very definitely well founded.
ReplyDeleteTotal fear (of what would happen if they got out) well describes the timid approach of the openers in the final. What happened after they got out justified this fear.
The gulf between England and Australia is perhaps best illustrated in the semi-final, not the final (although it was huge in the final). Australia were 92-5 after 15.2 overs and managed to reach 140. There is simply no way England, with 5 wickets down, would be capable of belting 50 runs off the final 5 overs. In fact it’s pretty unlikely regardless of how many wickets they had lost that England could achieve this.
The T20 batting line up needs a complete re-think, as does the T20 batting coaching.
We seem to have one genuine all rounder – by which I mean can bowl AND bat, namely Sciver, so for T20 we need to find another one or two more (the return of Marsh should help).
As to the bowling – well I don’t suppose the bowlers were buying the batsmen too many drinks. With Brunt, Colvin and Marsh out of the tournament it was supposed to be the bowling that was the worry. Nope, the bowling department was fantastic. Anya was a class apart and Grundy was amazing as a debutant.
It would have been a bad day for women’s cricket if a team hitting no sixes in the whole tournament had won a T20 World Cup. Congratulations Australia. You deserved it.
PS. All the players train like hell, drive miles around the country and show tremendous dedication to their sport for very little financial reward (pro contracts don't start until 1/5/14). Can't question their desire or the effort they put in.
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