Less than a month into her new role as England Women’s head coach, Lisa Keightley’s first notable task was to announce her squad for the T20 World Cup.
England batter Tammy Beaumont speaks to Jo Harman about the sacking of Mark Robinson, her country’s chances at the forthcoming T20 World Cup and why, from her perspective as a player, the gender of the national coach is irrelevant.
“I don’t know what it is about me but I’ve never started at a perfect time,” said Keightley, who coached England Women’s Academy between 2011 and 2015, when she revealed the 15 names who made the cut. “At Western Australia and the Perth Scorchers I went in two weeks before the main competition. So working at speed is something that I’m used to. I’m fortunate I know the women’s game really well. I know the England players pretty well, so I think that makes it easier. But I’m sure there’ll be challenges along the way.”
This was never the plan. At the start of last summer, Clare Connor, the ECB’s managing director of women’s cricket, would have fully expected Mark Robinson to be coaching the side at this tournament, which begins in Melbourne on February 21.
In Ellyse Perry and Meg Lanning we may well be witnessing the two greatest female cricketers in history, and this Australian team can already lay claim to being the most talented the women’s game has ever seen. If we’re to use last summer’s Ashes as a guide, the gulf in class will be too much to bridge in such little time. But while Beaumont admits it was a chastening experience, she insists England have the firepower to dislodge the reigning champions.
“It was probably the toughest summer as a squad we’ve ever had, if we’re being brutally honest. You suffer defeats quite often as a cricketer but for it be one after another was really hard to take. We’ve had a bit of time to look at ourselves and work out where we came up short in that series and how to really come back stronger.
“I wouldn’t say we’ve fallen away. I think our cricket and competition for places in the team is better now than it ever has been. It’s more that Australia have raised the bar again. You only have to look at the set-up they’ve got over there. They’ve got 90 professional cricketers and they’ve had that for quite a long time now. They’ve just had their fifth version of the Big Bash, which has given a lot of girls opportunities to train as full-time athletes, and we’re still working on getting 40 more professionals over here.
“But you can’t write anyone off in T20 cricket, particularly looking at the number of matchwinners in our squad. It only takes one of those to come off in a semi-final or final. And we did win the last T20 [in last summer’s Ashes].”
Whether England can rouse themselves under fresh leadership to claim an early victory on that front remains to be seen. In truth, reaching the final would be considered a satisfactory achievement given the recent upheaval. But after the dramatic turnaround in her own career, Beaumont knows that anything is possible.
Jo Harman is magazine editor of Wisden Cricket Monthly
