Pope happy to become leader

Ollie Pope has embraced the responsibility of becoming a dressing room leader with England after being earmarked as a future Test captain.

Ben Stokes has operated without an official deputy since taking over from Joe Root as skipper, but the vastly experienced Stuart Broad was lined up as a short-term stand-in if required last summer.

Now it appears that Pope has been fasttracked into a more influential role, taking over the team when Stokes opted to sit out England’s two-day warm-up against a New Zealand XI in Hamilton this week ahead of the first Test against New Zealand, which starts on

Manchester Thunder captain Natalie Metcalf believes the 2023 Super League will be the most challenging.

The season kicks off today, with defending champions Thunder facing Celtic Dragons.

“I’m massively excited about the

Thursday. “I think Popey is a great leader. He speaks really well in the group, he’s got a great cricket mind and there’s no doubt you can see him as a future England captain,” said Broad.

The Surrey batter was more circumspect but admitted to revelling in the opportunities he has had to step up.

“For now there’s no title on it. I’m just going to keep helping out where I can,” Pope said.

“It’s just good to be seen as a leader in that dressing room. Stokesy is the captain, he knows exactly how he wants to run it, but he comes up and bounces ideas off me sometimes, and he’ll do the same with some of the really experienced guys in the changing room too.”

season starting,” said Metcalf.

“Every season’s different, you’ve seen personnel changing in lots of other teams. I think the 2023 season is going to be the most challenging Super League season yet. I think that’s really exciting for the sport.”