England’s struggles in Ashes mismatch turn spotlight on structural imbalance
Weaknesses in the set-up of the domestic women’s game have been exposed, argues Isabelle Westbury
The post-mortem has begun. Australia retained the women’s Ashes at the earliest opportunity and won them outright swiftly thereafter. Records have fallen all series, and none in England’s favour,
In 2015, when England succumbed to a dominant Australia, we witnessed for the first time a critique of their performance previously not afforded in women’s sport. It precipitated a regime change and the captain and coach were replaced.
This time, ominously for the wider outlook, the major flaw is structural. Concerns over England’s domestic set-up were raised then as an added element but now take centre stage. Women’s cricket’s infrastructure is not an alluring, headline-grabbing topic, so we must seize the opportunity while we can. Australia boast five times more professional – or at the very least nearly professional – female cricketers in their domestic system than England. For nations with comparable means to invest in the sport, this is a preventable mismatch.
The Kia Super League was reeled out as England’s magic bullet, the bridge to the gap between the amateur county players and the fully professional internationals. It made for an appealing prospect but never quite clarified its true purpose. Whether to ground homegrown players or rely on international superstars; the creation of a pathway or a spectacle. The latter prevailed and England’s next
generation found opportunities few and far between.
Some future prospects were unearthed, but nothing compared to the reserves Australia have now. As for the spectacle, it was fun while it lasted, but even this has been cast aside, women’s cricket again an afterthought in the tumultuous restructuring of domestic cricket in England.
Clare Connor, the England and Wales Cricket Board’s managing director of women’s cricket, remains a lone voice on the subject at HQ, where it is by all accounts a challenge to even recognise the game exists when so much is focused on trying to salvage the men’s domestic game.
Around her there appears little support, or accountability, a position of power without feedback or anyone to bounce ideas off. Like the notion, for example, that a top-down fuelling of funds, all into the England team and not much beyond, could never offer lasting returns.
“The gap is not as big as some people are saying it is,” said England captain Heather Knight. There is truth in this; Australia’s superstars, the ones who would prosper regardless of infrastructure or funding, have outperformed England’s. That happens, it is sport and it was part of the magic produced by Meg Lanning on Friday night, when Australia won the T20 at Chelmsford by a massive 93 runs. The sides meet again at Hove today.
The difficulty for England, and the rest of the world, is that Australia appear to have many more superstars, and are producing new ones. They have more competitive, more frequent cricket, for the many, not the few.
To suggest Australia just have more “god-given physical attributes”, as head coach Mark Robinson has, seems far-fetched. There are many controllable factors that England have yet to even attempt to tackle before divine intervention can warrant attribution.
A £2million injection into domestic women’s cricket in England is the line tattooed on Connor’s auto-reply and this, certainly, is exciting. Details, however, are yet to emerge. Australia, meanwhile, surge forwards. How have the world champions fallen so far? That glorious achievement in 2017 was perhaps the anomaly, and this a mere reversion to the norm. With expectations predictably raised, this is a cruel crash back down to earth.
In sport it is inevitable that one team, or nation, will experience periods of dominance before acceding to another. England once did but Australia’s wholesale investment sets them up for a long stint at the top.
Nations the world over must invest in the layers below and widen cricket’s talent pool. England, after all, exposed a huge gulf with the West Indies earlier this summer; the gap with Australia, the other way, is comparable.
England need competition to grow and, for the health of the global game, Australia do too. Show us a plan, a player pathway, support greater women’s involvement in all aspects of the game and treat England’s elite, once they are there, as independent women, not dictated-to girls. Fail to do so and Australia will continue their dominance.