LAMB: HELP US MATCH ROAR OF LIONESSES!
ENGLAND all-rounder Emma Lamb hopes Heather Knight’s team can produce an Ashes roar to rival the England Lionesses’ Euros exploits last summer.
Lamb, a 25-year-old Lancastrian, accepts that facing Australia is the toughest challenge going in cricket.
But a series which will open at Trent Bridge on June 22, with England’s women playing their firstever five-day Test on home soil, and then moves on to three T20s and three ODI meetings, has already started to capture the public’s imagination.
“It was great to see the whole country get behind the England women in the football - and hopefully that will happen during The Ashes,” said Lamb. “It doesn’t get any harder than facing Australia.
“They have been the best in the world in all forms of the game for the past two years, so beating them would be huge.
“We will go into the series full of confidence, believing that if we focus on the things we can control then we have a great chance of winning.
“But it always helps to have the support of the fans – and the fact that the game at Edgbaston has almost sold out has given us a massive lift.
“The success of the Lionesses had a hugely positive impact on all women’s sport – not just football. I’m not a big rugby fan, but I watched England’s women win the Grand Slam the other week and I really got caught up in the excitement of it.
“Our aim has to be to try to emulate that success in cricket because the women’s game has started to take off now – and a good performance against Australia will help that to continue.”
Lamb, whose brother Danny also plays for Lancashire, joined England men’s star Jimmy Anderson at his former primary school in Burnley to see pupils take part in a coaching initiative being run in conjunction with the Chance to Shine charity and Lord’s Taverners.
As a youngster, Lamb found her chances of following in the footsteps of her brother limited.
Lamb recalled: “It was tough just to get a game because I was the only girl at high school who wanted to play cricket.
“There were times when people would make complaints because they didn’t think it was right for a girl to play alongside boys.
“Thankfully my mum really stood up for me, and my brother Danny kept encouraging me to keep going and has been a mentor for me.
“I am glad to say that attitudes have changed quite a lot since then – and I even got to play in the same team as Danny when we were picked to play for Bramhall in the Cheshire League.”