Imagine the following scenario. Andrew Strauss sits down with Alastair Cook for a chat about England’s strategy, after which Cook announces his immediate retirement from international cricket. A week later, Joe Root says he is taking an indefinite break from the game. It’ll never happen, right? Well, something very similar has just happened in women’s cricket.
Last week came the news that England’s long-serving captain and middle-order batter Charlotte Edwards had been forced to stand down. Today came the even more shocking revelation that her likely successor Sarah Taylor is “to take some personal time away from the game". With James Taylor having forced to quit the sport for health reasons at the same age, that’s two of my favourite cricketers off the scene at ridiculously young ages.
Edwards has given two decades’ service to England cricket, making her Test debut at the age of 16, scoring 34 and 31 against New Zealand. Test matches are rare in the women’s game, so since July 1996, the bulk of Edwards’ 309 appearances for her country have been in ODIs and T20s. With a Test average of 44, she remains one of the most successful run-makers in the modern game. But more than this, England Women have under his leadership moved into a new era, the professional era, in which players no longer have to wear skirts and caps, de rigeur when Charlotte started her career.
She has lifted the World T20 Cup and Ashes but the Aussies have in recent years become bigger stars. Edwards is not the best runners out in the middle and maybe that is why coach Mark Robinson, backed by his boss Clare Connor, gave her the elbow in the name of promoting youth and fitness. Last year at Cardiff, when signing autographs at the boundary fence, I must admit she did look like the proud elder sister amongst her younger siblings, a mother hen shepherding her clucking chickens. I don’t mean that disparagingly at all. Charlotte Edwards was, is, a genuine star and, as the likes of Meg Lanning and Ellyse Perry will testify, she is one of the greats of the game, not just in 2016 but in its entire history.
I’ve written before about the way Sarah Taylor always plays with a smile on her face, be it batting or behind the stumps. That belies a steely determination that all top sports people must possess to succeed. And success is no stranger to Sarah.
Her debut came against India in 2006 at the grand old age of 17. Since then she has become one of the world’s best players, opening and keeping wicket. Admittedly last year’s Ashes series and the recent World T20 didn’t see Taylor at her best. Nevertheless the media aren’t revealing the reason for her immediate break, which will presumably scupper her chance of taking Edwards’ place as captain and participating in the summer fixtures against Pakistan.
Sarah is undoubtedly an emotional player who, while delighting spectators like me, can get under the skin of opponents, albeit not in a nasty Jimmy Anderson way. Maybe that explains why her form can be a rollercoaster ride. When she makes runs, England usually win. When she fails, so does her team. However, she has recently spread her wings in Australian Men’s Grade cricket and their women’s Big Bash, easily holding her own.
So what about her future? I am clinging to the hope dangled by history. At 21 she took a similar break before returning in even better form than ever. Please, Sarah, come back to grace the game once more. Women’s cricket can’t afford to lose two of its biggest names.
