IN THE MONEY
England’s women to cash in on final glory
IT SAYS everything about the development of the women’s game that England will pocket close to a year’s pay each as a bonus if they can win arguably the biggest match in female cricket history.
Victory in tomorrow’s World Cup final against India at a soldout Lord’s would be worth around £34,000 each to the 15-woman squad, with England and the ECB deciding to share the $660,000 (£512,000) prize-money equally among the players.
That is 15 times more than winning the 2009 World Cup was worth to England’s then parttimers and certainly more than the crystal decanter Jo Chamberlain received for being player of the match in the 1993 success.
What will be more important to Heather Knight’s side, whose fulltime professional contracts are worth around £50,000 a year, will be winning what could be a gamechanging match for the rapidly advancing women’s game.
India’s progress to the final at the expense of Australia will mean that a global television audience of as many as a quarter of a billion people will join the 26,000 at Lord’s in seeing just how far women’s cricket has come.
And that Indian success, thanks to an astonishing 171 off 115 balls from Harmanpreet Kaur in Thursday’s semi-final, could have the same impact on women’s cricket as MS Dhoni’s 2007 world champions had on Twenty20. For now England must put the wider picture to the backs of their minds as they attempt to avenge their only group defeat in a tournament that has been a triumph for the new management team of Knight and coach Mark Robinson.
It was just over a year ago that Robinson marked the start of his reign by taking the huge gamble of sacking the iconic figure of Charlotte Edwards as captain because he felt the team needed to move in a more dynamic direction. That bold move is now on the brink of paying off.
‘It certainly added pressure on me but I knew it was the right thing to do for the good of the team and the women’s game,’ Robinson told Sportsmail yesterday. ‘It is wrong and harsh to say I have been vindicated because Lottie was such a brilliant servant to the game but I wanted to give this group of girls enough space to grow.
‘I was told when I first came in that if Lottie and Sarah Taylor didn’t get runs we were knackered. And if I heard that, I’m sure the girls did and believed it. Now we can be three wickets down but still have enough quality to recover and that’s a good place to be. We haven’t won anything yet but we’ve got a very talented team who are humble and together. That gives us a chance.’
Robinson’s verdict was backed up by vice-captain Anya Shrubsole, who sealed a nerve-racking semi-final win over South Africa at Bristol by smashing her first ball for four when two were needed off the last two deliveries.
‘It was a really tough decision because Lottie was still a worldclass player and you saw how many runs she had scored in the World Twenty20,’ said Shrubsole as England got used to the rarefied surroundings of Lord’s.
‘She was always going to be someone we’d miss but he wanted to move the team forward and I think the performances we’ve had in this World Cup have shown that he was right. The batters have really stood up since Charlotte retired and that’s meant we haven’t missed her as much as people thought we would.’
Robinson, the former Sussex director of cricket, was a candidate for the England men’s coaching job before Peter Moores was given a second crack at it and he knows he can enhance his future claims with women’s success.
‘It’s one of the best jobs in the world so you’d be stupid not to say you’d like to do it,’ said Robinson of the men’s role.
‘I’m loving what I’m doing and enjoying every minute. I see everything through another lens now after 30 years in the men’s game and you do see things differently. I’ve had great pleasure and enjoyment from being involved with this team already and Sunday will be a great occasion for me, let alone the players. You dream of being part of big games like this.’