‘Jeremy Corbyn was tweeting me – that is the effect it had’
England’s World Cup hero Anya Shrubsole tells Ben Coles how life has turned upside down
If Anya Shrubsole was unsure whether her star turn in the Women’s World Cup final would really change her life, a quick glance at her Twitter timeline on Sunday evening was enough to convince her. Among the deluge of messages from friends, families and perfect strangers were a salute from the Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, and an invitation from her beloved Portsmouth Football Club to watch a game in Fratton Park’s directors’ box next season.
“It’s just amazing the kind of people you hear from,” she said, reflecting on her and England’s historic achievement at an inappropriately slate-skied Lord’s yesterday.
“Someone said Jeremy Corbyn had messaged me and I was like ‘Surely not’? I guess that’s a reflection of the influence that game had on everyone here in Britain.”
That said, you do not get the impression that fame will change Shrubsole, even if her Lord’s heroics – in which she produced the best bowling figures in a Women’s Cricket World Cup final and secured a breathless nine-run victory – have been looped endlessly on television for the past 48 hours. Come the end of the year, the perfect yorker to India’s Rajeshwari Gayakwad that sealed the triumph is nailed on to serve as a centrepiece of 2017 sporting montages.
So, how will she celebrate in the coming days? “I probably will go home and put the kettle on as normal,” she said. “I pride myself on not getting too up in situations and trying not to get too down either. I think it’s hard not to get too high at the minute, but I’ll go home and spend a quiet few days with my family.
“In my head, life will return to normal pretty quickly; whether that actually happens or not, I don’t know. I’ve always wanted to be the best player that I can possibly be. I am a huge believer that you’ve never made it, and the day you think you’ve made it, is the day that you’re in a lot of trouble. There’s always some way you can improve, and hopefully at the end of my career I will look back and think I did as well as I possibly could do.”
Shrubsole may be a modest soul, but her Lord’s ambitions have been fixed since childhood. Her father, Ian, who she describes as “a pretty good player, pretty lively at club level”, posted two photos on Twitter last week of a 10-year-old Anya watching Ian play at Lord’s
back in 2001. She duly obliged the cameramen yesterday by recreating the pose as a World Cup-winning 25-year-old.
“I remember that day and the game relatively well and thinking, not that I’d be out there in a World Cup final, but thinking ‘wouldn’t it be nice to play out there one day’,” she reflects. “I played so many
sports when I was younger, I loved sport. I still do, even though now I only play the one.
“How can you not look out there [at Lord’s] 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.
“I just wanted to be the best that I could be at anything that I did. I’m a very competitive person. I take after my dad in that respect. Even playing cards, both of us hated to lose at a completely trivial game.
“So, I just wanted to be the best that I could at whatever sport it was, and I played every sport for as long as I could, and cricket came to the forefront. And I think you just want to play for England and to represent your country. You almost don’t think about what that means, about the opportunity to play in a World Cup.
“I absolutely loved my sport growing up and was playing football, rugby, swimming. I’ve always been a person who sees
‘The day you think you’ve made it is the day you’re in a lot of trouble. You can always improve’
obstacles as challenges and you just want to get over them and do things to the best of your ability.”
That refusal from Shrubsole to settle will be music to the ears of England and the International Cricket Council at a time when interest in women’s cricket is flying. Sunday’s capacity crowd at Lord’s was an immediate symbol of the sport’s growth.
More importantly, having India and South Africa emerge as competitive forces at this year’s World Cup points to a fascinating future for women’s cricket, with Shrubsole at the heart of it.
“You had six teams who would have thought they could have won, and that’s what the game needs: everyone being competitive. It’s no good having one or two teams who dominate,” Shrubsole notes.
“If the game keeps progressing around the world, and boards keep backing their players and making the game as professional as possible, everyone’s seen how good this tournament’s been. It can only really get better from here.”