World Cup star Anya’s a VIP guest at Pompey
ENGLAND’S BOWLING HERO DELIGHTED AT INVITATION FROM HER FAVOURITE CLUB
ANYA Shrubsole will capitalise on her status as a Women’s World Cup winner – by being a VIP guest at her beloved Portsmouth FC.
The swing bowler – whose six for 46, including five in 19 balls, secured a remarkable victory for England in Sunday’s final against India at Lord’s – has received messages of congratulations from the likes of Jeremy Corbyn and Joe Root.
Yet it was the one she received from League One Portsmouth, welcoming her to watch a game during the coming season from the directors’ box, that meant most.
Shrubsole inherited her father’s fondness for the football club in the same way she did his passion for cricket.
Their recent promotion from League Two is a further cause for personal optimism, and the 25-yearold said: “I’m a big Portsmouth fan and they messaged me, so hopefully I’m going to see a game early next season.
“They’ve invited me along to a game to watch in the directors’ box so that’ll be pretty cool. I don’t get to go and see them particularly often, with cricket and things like that, so that’ll be a nice treat early season.
“My dad was born in Portsmouth. He was a Portsmouth fan so I just followed suit. Jeremy Corbyn (was another who got in touch), just amazing the kind of people you hear from. Someone said it to me and I was like, ‘Surely not,’ and then they showed me. I guess that’s a reflection of the influence that game had on everyone here in Britain.”
Shrubsole, who earlier described England’s victory as a “watershed moment” for the sport, had already attracted attention via her father when he posted on social media an image of her watching at Lord’s aged nine.
She had been watching him play for Bath in the National Club Championship, and she said: “My love of the game came mainly from dad and I’m happy he posted that photo, it is obviously something sentimental and I remember that game at Lord’s pretty well.
“How can you not look out there and think it would be a pretty cool place to play?
“Never did I think it would be in a World Cup final, and never at that age did I think we’d be winning it. To wake up as world champions is something pretty special and to be back here, I still can’t quite believe it has happened.
“It’s only once it ends that you kind of go, ‘I just won a World Cup final,’ and it took me quite a long time after to realise the magnitude of what you’ve achieved. I was in a complete state of shock.”
Team-mate Tammy Beaumont said she hoped England’s success would inspire a new generation of women cricketers.
She said: “Hopefully some young girl that’s watched will be walking out at Lord’s in 10-15 years’ time to play in a World Cup again.
“Hopefully it will filter down to increasing the Super League, getting more than just the 18 of us on contracts.
“If we can in 10 years’ time get it to being a domestic level where everyone is more professional, it will raise the game in an even bigger way.”