Cricket is like Politics

Back in March I wrote a piece suggesting that England Women were in a lot more trouble, in terms of their standing in world cricket, than people would have you believe (you'll find it here). On Saturday I was at Trent Bridge to see England get hammered by India in the first match of their eight match tour. They were superior to England in every department. It was as I feared.

Charlotte Edwards was brimming with confidence and enthusiasm when she was handed her "dream job". I would expect nothing less from her, but I am concerned about what she has got to work with, and the fact that short-term goals - there is a 50 over World Cup in India in September, and then a T20 World Cup here in England in 2026 - determine the make-up of this current England team. The fact that there is a World Cup of some sort every couple of years, and an Ashes series every couple of years in between, means that every team is being picked with the next competition in mind, which is rarely more than 12 months ahead. In that time the team will probably play two or three series at the most. Short term goals are the be all and end all. 

This is no way to develop a great team. It is a pathway to mediocrity. To "safe selections". There is no chance for experimentation, for development, for trial and error. Players who know they will be selected week in week out no matter how they perform, whether they are fit or not, have no pressure to perform beyond the odd 50 here or there, or the odd decent bowling spell. It means when push comes to shove they are not hungry enough, and they are not good enough, and they don't want it enough. 

England need a shake-up! Even if those who come in to replace those who are dropped fail to perform, which many of them will. Playing international cricket is not easy. But players need to be given the opportunity to fail. And that does not mean the odd game here and there, with the "here is your opportunity to show us what you can do". The West Indies series was an ideal opportunity to give some youngsters their chance, particularly batters, but we went with the tried and tested and England won both series at a canter, but what did we learn from these series? Not a lot is the answer.

And here we are playing India with the same team and losing, well so far anyway. If Charlie Dean plays this evening in place of Linsey Smith, as I suspect she might, then the team on the park will not look very different from the team that got hammered by Australia in the Ashes. If Heather Knight was fit it would look even more similar. 

At some point England need to look beyond the next tournament or beyond the next Ashes series, and the coach needs to be reassured that they will be backed throughout that time. In my view now is the time for that reset, but I wonder if the opportunity has already passed. 

Martin Davies
1/VI/25