If London taxi drivers are any barometer then England’s women cricketers have made the breakthrough from fringe attraction to national hope. After the men’s side had been humbled by the Netherlands in the opening match of the World Twenty20 at Lord’s last Friday, one cabbie was keen to express his disgust. “They are overpaid prima donnas,” he said. “It’s the women who are England’s real champions, gawdblessum. At least they’ve won something.”
That something, the Women’s World Cup, was paraded by Charlotte Edwards and her team at Lord’s before the men played. They hope they will back on June 21 to lift another piece of silverware. For the first time, a leading women’s tournament will be held at the same time as the men play. Today, the women’s World Twenty20 begins in Taunton with England v India. All the group matches for the eight teams will be held at the self-styled “home of women’s cricket” before the women play their semi-finals and final at the same grounds and on the same days as the men.
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For Ebony Rainford-Brent, the England opening batsman, a possible semi-final at the Brit Oval on June 19 would be a dream homecoming to a ground where she averages 50 in domestic cricket but has never played for her country. She grew up just down the road in Herne Hill, near Brixton, a South London state school-educated black girl who stumbled into cricket by pure chance.
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“It was quite random,” she said. “I was in my last year in primary school and someone from the London Community Cricket Association came to do a hit-about with us. I was the only girl interested, so they sent me on a learning course at the Oval and there someone saw me and said ‘you have to go to Surrey trials’. A few years later I was in the junior England team. My secondary school never played cricket, so if it wasn’t for that one-off opportunity, I wouldn’t be here.”
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It is a different route to the top from that taken by many team-mates, who were inspired by cricket-loving siblings or lucky enough to go to an enlightened school where girls play cricket with boys, such as Brighton College, which nurtured three of the present England side as well as Clare Connor, the ECB head of women’s cricket.
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Ebony-Jewel Cora-Lee Camellia Rosamond, to give her full set of Christian names thanks to indecisive parents, admits that she is lucky to be playing for England now, when it is possible to concentrate on cricket without needing a job. “After I finished my Masters [in chemistry at University College London], I temped for a bit but I had to quit three jobs because it wasn’t feasible to commit to work and cricket,” she said. Last year she became one of eight players to be given a Chance to shine coaching contracts, which gives her time to train properly. “I wanted to become a patent attorney but I guess that can wait,” she said.
It is important that England take every advantage they can to continue a golden year that began with a 50-over World Cup win in Australia in March and will continue, it is hoped, through a World Twenty20 title to a second defence of the Ashes title they won in 2005. That one-off Test, which will be played in Worcester from July 10, presents new challenges for the younger players.
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“I’ve never played a Test match before,” Rainford-Brent said. Indeed even Edwards, who made her England debut in 1996, has played only 17. “I’ve never batted for longer than a one-day game and I’m not sure that Twenty20 is the ideal warm-up but I’ll have to draw on the experience of Lottie [Edwards] and Claire Taylor to work out what to do. The fact we are playing only one Test makes it more special. There is only one chance to retain the Ashes. It’s pressure, but if I wasn’t up for that, I shouldn’t really be here.”
Winning the World Cup has been life-changing. There are sponsorship opportunities – Rainford-Brent is an ambassador this summer for Old Jamaica Ginger Beer – and recognition. “I was at a cashpoint in London the other day with Laura Marsh [her team-mate] and two guys said ‘Oi, aren’t you cricketers’ to us,” she said. “Kids come up and ask for autographs. It’s definitely making an impact.”
However, Rainford-Brent is not letting fame go to her head, especially as she has not yet nailed down a place in the starting XI. England have won only six of their 11 Twenty20 internationals to date and she said: “We’ve been doing a lot of warm-up matches against men’s teams. We haven’t left anything unturned. The title of favourites is nice to hear, but we’re going to have to push it to get there.”
And if they do end up at Lord’s for finals day, Rainford-Brent has one small request for the ICC organisers. “I don’t mind what dressing-room we’re given, as long as they’ve got hair straighteners for me to use after the game.”
How they line up
Pool A: South Africa, West Indies, Australia, New Zealand
Pool B: England, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka