Latest news with #womenscricket
BBC News
2 days ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Wong calls for T20 finals day revamp
Warwickshire's Issy Wong would like to see both women's and men's teams share the same stage for the T20 Blast Blaze and Warwickshire played an eliminator at the inaugural women's Finals Day on Sunday to see who would meet group winners Surrey, who qualified automatically for the Bears beat The Blaze, but then had less than an hour to prepare for the final which Surrey won by five wickets at the Kia Oval. The men's Finals Day has featured two semi-finals and a final since its inception in 2003."For the finals, can we maybe mix the men's and women's and have a semi-final day and a final day, because we've just played a game 45 minutes before," Wong told BBC Radio WM. She added: "We earned our place in that final and to have the opportunity to attack it on fresh legs would be a fantastic thing for the competition because those finals should be played to the highest standard."An ECB-led restructure fully aligned women's domestic cricket with the men's county game for the first time this top-tier women's county sides were chosen to contest the inaugural T20 Blast and One-Day Cup competitions above a 10-team second tier."In terms of how the county structure has taken off, I couldn't be more pleased with how I feel the game is growing, and it just keeps on growing every year," Wong said."Today was an example that if you put our game on the biggest stage and you market it well, people will come because it's entertaining."Wong fell out of favour with selectors after making her England debut in 2022, with World Cup-winning coach Mark Robinson critical of how she was managed as an international she looked back to her best in Sunday's eliminator, top-scoring with a 38-ball 59 before removing England star Tammy Beaumont and Scotland captain Kathryn Bryce cheaply on her way to figures of 4-14."I've loved every second of playing this year," Wong said."You can't come in and have a bad day really because whatever you need someone will give, and it's been a fantastic place to play cricket this year."
The Guardian
19-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Amy Jones's steady hands steer England past India in second women's ODI
If you've not yet seen the blockbuster trailer directed by Bend It Like Beckham's Gurinder Chadha, shot at Lord's by the England and Wales Cricket Board to promote its 2025 summer of cricket, make sure to search it out. It's a slightly odd piece of theatre involving Heather Knight, Lauren Filer and Danni Wyatt-Hodge, which culminates in Wyatt-Hodge attempting to run out Filer with a samosa. None of the above were actually on show at Lord's on Saturday – Knight is injured, Wyatt-Hodge is not in the ODI squad, and Filer was dropped for this fixture in favour of Em Arlott – but the key players on this stage were actually a different pair. Because, of course, the 'Whack It Like Wyatt-Hodge' trailer was gently poking fun at the storm that erupted last time India played at this ground three years ago, when Deepti Sharma controversially ran out Charlie Dean at the non-strikers end. While Deepti and Dean have played together many times here since then, as teammates for London Spirit in the Hundred, the incident nevertheless remains an important moment in the symbolism of women's cricket. On Saturday, therefore, there was inevitably a certain frisson when Deepti came to the crease with India 72 for five, and quite quickly found herself facing Dean. A crowd that had patiently sat through the four-hour rain delay that reduced the match to 29 overs a side were suddenly on the edge of their seats. Deepti narrowly survived the first ball of Dean's second spell, which turned sharply and beat her bat. But she then saw off her remaining 11 balls without theatrics – eventually progressing to an unbeaten 30 as she tried to wrestle back some advantage for India, who struggled to 143 for eight on a pitch made stodgy by the rain. Dean had to be content with holding on to a catch at extra cover to see off Smriti Mandhana for 42, after earlier taking the return catch proffered up by Jemimah Rodrigues. Sophie Ecclestone, meanwhile, took three for 27, including rattling the stumps of Harmanpreet Kaur after Sophia Dunkley had twice let off the India captain at cover. Might this match pass without controversy, despite the recent tensions between these sides (Pratika Rawal was fined 10% of her match fee this week after barging Ecclestone and Filer during the first ODI at Southampton)? No: it was simply biding its time. The real drama came in the second act, in the fifth over of England's run chase, when Tammy Beaumont appeared to deliberately kick the ball out of the way of the wicketkeeper, Richa Ghosh. Ghosh appealed for Beaumont to be given out obstructing the field, and the umpires referred it upstairs. Eventually, Jacqueline Williams adjudged that Beaumont had merely been making her way back to her crease after deciding against taking a single, but judging by the boos that rang out around the ground when the 'not out' verdict appeared on the big screen, Williams's will not be the last words on the subject. Meanwhile, who was the bowler who sent down the ball in question? None other than Deepti Sharma. Sign up to The Spin Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week's action after newsletter promotion Beaumont added just nine more runs before Sneh Rana trapped her leg-before, attempting a reverse sweep, but – after a brief further delay for rain, in which five more overs were lost and England's target was revised to 115 – an unbeaten 46 from Amy Jones ensured England eventually got across the line with relative ease, winning by eight wickets with 18 balls to spare, to level the series at 1-1. The decider takes place at Durham on Tuesday: don't be surprised if there is more drama still to come.
New York Times
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Why Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha has swapped football for cricket
Gurinder Chadha's cult 2002 sports film Bend It Like Beckham ends with Jesminder Bhamra's white, Irish boyfriend and football coach Joe playing cricket with her father, who had previously been excluded from the sport after arriving in Britain. This is why he is initially unsupportive of Jess' football career. Advertisement It's a resolution that pulls together harmoniously the film's threads of family, national identity, acceptability and acceptance, community and belonging — reconciling relationships that were knottier an hour and a half earlier. Almost 25 years on, British-Indian director Chadha has made her first foray into sports filmmaking since Bend It Like Beckham's unprecedented success, having been approached by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to create a blockbuster film trailer to promote the ongoing series against India Women. For the first time, England Women are playing India alongside the countries' men and mixed disability teams. While the men are competing at Lord's this week in the third Test of their summer, with the series locked at 1-1, India's women have made history by clinching their own T20 series with one game still to play — their first such series win on English soil. They will look to build on that success when the three-match one-day international series begins on Wednesday. The trailer spotlights iconic moments from past encounters as well as the British-Indian cricket community across England, and riffs off some of the themes and scenes from Bend It Like Beckham. Players Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Heather Knight and Lauren Filer, who all watched Chadha's movie as children, make their acting debuts. 'They're not really actors, but at the same time, they're performers when it comes to being great sportswomen,' says Chadha. 'My job was to direct them, to make them feel comfortable and not self-conscious. They all spoke about the effect 'Bend It' had on them growing up, and how they still watch it. It was about women in sport, basically — and even though it's cricket, they recognise the power of that. 'In the film, I wanted to make sure women looked super-athletic, and that's what I was also trying to do with the teaser. Shifting images of how people perceive women, particularly sportswomen, in our world is really important to me as a director.' Advertisement The aim is to, in Chadha's words, 'lend the Bend It effect' to women's cricket. It is difficult to encapsulate the breadth of the Bend It effect, from its impact on British-South Asian girls who saw in lead character Jess their first sporting role-model to its part in normalising the ambitions of women and girls in football at a time when a scholarship to the United States' college game was the only route to a professional career. For thousands of women, the movie was their gateway into football. England internationals past and present, including Alex Greenwood, Leah Williamson and Rachel Daly, have spoken of its impact on them. Domestic women's cricket has grown significantly in the past few years, aided by the popularity of The Hundred, a shorter and simplified form of the game played each summer that was designed to attract newer audiences. A March 2025 report from the Professional Cricketers' Association (PCA) noted there were 150 professional female cricketers in England, up from 24 in 2020, and that 320,000 people had been to watch a live women's Hundred game in 2024 compared to 267,000 in the tournament's first season three years earlier. The average Hundred salary in 2021 was £8,000 but will have risen to £29,100 this year; the PCA noted the gap between top men's and women's salaries in the game, however, had increased. ECB statistics have shown growing numbers of women and girls' cricket teams and improving attendances at England Women's matches. Both sports are moving into new eras following decades of neglect by the powers that be. Cricket chiefs will likely have one eye on the popularity of the Lionesses, currently defending their European Championship title in Switzerland, and the Women's Super League, which became fully professional in 2018 — 16 years after Bend It Like Beckham hit cinemas — and opened up a wider pathway for women to have a career as a professional footballer in England. Chadha's work, of course, is about more than events on the field and uses sport to examine evolving ideas of Britishness. Back in 2002, she says, 'the idea of making a film about football and girls was risible' and 'everyone thought it was a joke, that it would never work and no one would be interested — especially in an Indian girl playing football. That was, like, a real joke'. Advertisement Why did she persist? 'Because I believed in it. I thought that was the time. I thought the zeitgeist was changing. Soccer was more than just soccer and it had become a national sport. Taking something about football and the England team at the time and opening it up culturally and gender-wise, to me, felt like the right way to push all the right buttons in terms of what I wanted to say about Britain and what Britain looked like to me compared to what I saw on screen. 'At that time, Britain was changing.' She mentions Norman Tebbit, the British Conservative Party politician who recently passed away but, in 1990, had suggested that those people living in England who support their native countries, including South Asian and Caribbean sides, when they face the English cricket team are not sufficiently integrated; the so-called 'Tebbit test' was a source of significant media coverage and debate. 'So sports and national identity were interlinked,' continues Chadha. 'Now what I find brilliant about cricket is the fans, the followers — the England Barmy Army and the Indian Bharat Army — have a lot of fun at cricket games. They're there to party, really, and support their teams. I think it's a great way of expressing who you are, by following a sports team — but at the same time, it's the coming together of England and India and two nations. 'What I see with cricket is that people celebrate the game as well as their own identities.' Some of Chadha's clearest childhood memories are of her father being 'glued to the telly for days' whenever an India match was being shown. 'No work would get done. My mum would be saying, 'There's no rice in the house! There's no chapati flour! We need to go to the shops!'. And he would go, 'Later! Later! Later!'.' She recalls walking around Lord's, the London cricket ground considered to be the spiritual home of the sport worldwide, while shooting the trailer to see a portrait of Bishan Singh Bedi, who was her father's favourite cricketer. 'I took a selfie with him, for old time's sake,' she says. 'Just walking around the grounds, there's a lot of history for me. It's a shame my father's not around today, but I know he would be super-happy I was doing this.' In 2022, more than 2,000 South Asian women volunteered to deliver cricket sessions via the ECB and Sport England's Dream Big programme, part of a wider effort to open avenues for diverse communities at grassroots level. Partnership with faith institutions and community centres has also helped. 'In India, it's massive as well among women,' adds Chadha, 'because it's more than just the sport. It's important to stress that women are put on the same pedestal and I think that's why a lot of women come out and support it. As long as the players are there and the talent's there, there's no holding women back. Advertisement 'Putting women on equal footing with the men's game is the intention (of the trailer). That's really what I wanted to do. And I think that's what we've achieved. And who knows if there's a cricket fan out there who's got a great script in them?'. Click here to read more cricket stories on The Athletic.
Yahoo
28-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
England women and a new focus after ‘fitness' furore
Charlotte Edwards knows she must change perceptions as well as results when a new era for England women's cricket begins in earnest at Trent Bridge, with scrutiny on them like never before. There is nothing that forces a shake-up and introspection more than an Ashes whitewash, and England turned to one of the biggest figures in women's cricket history after a woeful winter. Advertisement England men know all about the repercussions that come with losing a Test series 5-0 in Australia, but the points structure in the women's game (white-ball wins are worth two points and a Test victory earns you four points) makes it appear even worse when contemplating the 16-0 embarrassment handed out by the old enemy. Not only that, but Edwards, who succeeded Jon Lewis as coach after the inevitable review that followed, has had to deal with questions about England's fitness levels at a time when the ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) are desperate to shout about the professionalism of the women's game. A six-match series against a weak West Indies provided a gentle introduction for an England team now led by new captain Nat Sciver-Brunt, but life will become tougher as the first of eight internationals against a strong India side begins on Saturday. That will be followed by a 50-over World Cup in India and Sri Lanka, and then a Twenty20 world tournament in England next summer that the governing body hopes will become something of a 'Lionesses' moment in terms of interest and projection — mirroring the England's women's football team's victory on home soil at Euro 2022. Advertisement But it is the spectre of Australia that will continue to loom large over England until they prove their significant investment in women's cricket — a new professional structure at county level and equal starting salaries with men was a big step forward this year — sees them match and even overtake the dominant force in the game. England last won the Ashes 11 years ago and have not defeated Australia in a world tournament knockout match since 2009. In 11 World Cups across formats since, Australia have been victorious eight times while England have won just one, the 2017 50-over home tournament. 'We're a lot closer to Australia than people are giving us credit for, which probably sounds stupid after a 16-0 drubbing, but I truly believe the teams are closer than that,' former England captain Edwards tells . 'I know the Aussies believe we're closer than that, too, because I've coached a lot out there and they've got a lot of respect. Advertisement 'When I first came in, the objective was to get our players playing more county cricket and putting an emphasis on performance in that, and it was really important for us to win both series against West Indies. 'The other thing I had to deal with was the perception of us as a group, which, after the winter, wasn't in the greatest of places. It was just looking at our professionalism and making players really understand their roles as England cricketers. 'I've been super impressed with how the players have responded. Now we're ready to take on the next challenge, which is India.' That perception is a key point. One of the biggest controversies in England's development initially began when one of their former players and now a leading commentator, Alex Hartley, criticised the players' fitness after their shock defeat to the West Indies in Dubai in October and their early exit from the T20 World Cup. Advertisement 'About 80 per cent of the England team are fit and athletic enough, but there are girls in that side who are letting the team down on fitness,' Hartley told the BBC. The row escalated when Sophie Ecclestone, one of England's leading players and former No 1-ranked bowler in the world, took the criticism personally and refused to do a pitch-side interview with her former team-mate at both England and Lancashire after the first T20 international of the Ashes, by which point England were 6-0 down. Hartley made that snub public when she later said on the BBC: 'I've been hung out to dry. The reason I said England aren't as fit as Australia is because I want them to compete. I want them to be better and to win. But I've been given the cold shoulder. Not by everyone, but a few individual coaches and players. They won't even look at me.' Hartley, as a recently retired player and former team-mate of many of the players, should be commended for doing her job as a broadcaster and saying it as it is. Advertisement But perhaps the problem came with her use of the word 'fitness'. Only in April, one of the highest profile male cricketers of the modern age in Andrew Flintoff said in a Disney Plus documentary that fat shaming 25 years ago had driven him to bulimia. Tammy Beaumont is one of the most experienced members of the England side and still a key figure in the new era as an opening batter in all three formats. 'It's a difficult one,' Beaumont, 34, tells . 'If the word athleticism had been used, it would have been more accurate. I have spoken to Alex Hartley about it. We go way back and used to live with each other — and I think she now thinks athleticism is the word she should have used. That would be a fair comment. 'The Australians were more athletic than us in the field. Fitness-wise, we don't disclose our scores, but some people would be surprised to see we're not as unfit as has been said. But, yes, we have to move better in the field, we have to take the catches under pressure, and we understand that. 'More eyes are on women's cricket now. We want to be treated as equally as possible to our male counterparts, and they would have received criticism for similar things. Advertisement 'We have to own up to the fact we as players weren't good enough on the pitch and we handled things off it in a way we regret. That's something we really want to prove to all the supporters. We care so much about English cricket and each other.' Edwards concurs. 'It was really hard as an ex-player and someone who cares enormously about the women's game and the England team to witness that. 'It was a great reminder of where the game has reached. Gone are the days when there were two or three people in the ground watching and not too many bothered about it. 'That it got that level of media attention is where we want the game to be. It was a real shock to the players because they probably weren't prepared for that level of scrutiny. Advertisement 'What we can't move away from is that Australia are a more athletic and probably fitter team than us, but from my experiences, the level of fitness I've witnessed since I've come in has been of a really high standard. 'The players are under no illusions now as to what is expected of them as England cricketers. I've seen a real shift in that area. After the winter, everyone was aware that the focus was on fitness rather than cricket, and I want the focus to be on cricket. It's whether we're winning games and batting or bowling well, rather than that. That can't be a talking point moving forward.' Ecclestone missed the West Indies matches with a knee injury and then took a temporary break to protect her well-being and manage another minor injury. But she is due to make her return in Nottingham on Saturday. 'It has been a tough few months for Soph,' says Edwards. 'We know we're a better team with her in it, but it needed to be right for everyone before she came back. Advertisement 'I'm looking forward to having her back doing what she loves doing and is good at. She has the full support of all the players and staff.' When Edwards started playing for England in 1996, aged just 16, women cricketers were forced to wear skirts and paid for the privilege of representing their country. By the time she was controversially replaced as England captain in 2016 by coach Mark Robinson, she had made 309 appearances in all formats and had seen the women's game become professional and grow beyond all recognition. She has become just as adept as a coach, initially with Hampshire and Southern Vipers before gaining success in Australia and India with Sydney Sixers and Mumbai Indians. It was inevitable she would coach England and she will bring discipline and empathy. Advertisement 'I love coaching and this job came at the right time,' says Edwards. 'I'm pretty hard but fair as a coach. I expect high standards of everyone, but I'm a lot of fun as well. 'I care enormously about the people I work with and I work bloody hard. You have to take people on that journey with you and building relationships is a big part of that. Hopefully, I've done that quite well over the last few years.' Beaumont is relishing working again with her former England opening batting partner. 'She's an England legend and that comes with the respect it demands,' she says. 'She commands respect for everything she did as a player, but now her coaching does, too. She's a winner and not afraid to say now it's all about winning. That's really something that we're all on board with.' Schedule: June 28: first T20 international (Trent Bridge, Nottingham); July 1: 2nd T20i (Bristol); July 4: 3rd T20i (The Oval, London); July 9: fourth T20i (Old Trafford, Manchester); July 12: 5th T20i (Edgbaston). July 16: first one-day international (Southampton); July 19: 2nd ODI (Lord's, London); July 22: 3rd ODI (Chester-le-Street, Durham). Advertisement Squads (T20 internationals) England: Nat Sciver-Brunt (captain), Em Arlott, Tammy Beaumont, Lauren Bell, Alice Capsey, Charlie Dean, Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Ecclestone, Lauren Filer, Amy Jones (wicketkeeper), Paige Scholfield, Linsey Smith, Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Issy Wong. India: Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wicketkeeper), Yastika Bhatia (wicketkeeper), Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Sree Charani, Shuchi Upadhyay, Amanjot Kaur, Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Gaud, Sayali Satghare. This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Global Sports, Cricket, Women's Olympics 2025 The Athletic Media Company
New York Times
28-06-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
England women and a new focus after ‘fitness' furore
Charlotte Edwards knows she must change perceptions as well as results when a new era for England women's cricket begins in earnest at Trent Bridge, with scrutiny on them like never before. There is nothing that forces a shake-up and introspection more than an Ashes whitewash, and England turned to one of the biggest figures in women's cricket history after a woeful winter. Advertisement England men know all about the repercussions that come with losing a Test series 5-0 in Australia, but the points structure in the women's game (white-ball wins are worth two points and a Test victory earns you four points) makes it appear even worse when contemplating the 16-0 embarrassment handed out by the old enemy. Not only that, but Edwards, who succeeded Jon Lewis as coach after the inevitable review that followed, has had to deal with questions about England's fitness levels at a time when the ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) are desperate to shout about the professionalism of the women's game. A six-match series against a weak West Indies provided a gentle introduction for an England team now led by new captain Nat Sciver-Brunt, but life will become tougher as the first of eight internationals against a strong India side begins on Saturday. That will be followed by a 50-over World Cup in India and Sri Lanka, and then a Twenty20 world tournament in England next summer that the governing body hopes will become something of a 'Lionesses' moment in terms of interest and projection — mirroring the England's women's football team's victory on home soil at Euro 2022. But it is the spectre of Australia that will continue to loom large over England until they prove their significant investment in women's cricket — a new professional structure at county level and equal starting salaries with men was a big step forward this year — sees them match and even overtake the dominant force in the game. England last won the Ashes 11 years ago and have not defeated Australia in a world tournament knockout match since 2009. In 11 World Cups across formats since, Australia have been victorious eight times while England have won just one, the 2017 50-over home tournament. 'We're a lot closer to Australia than people are giving us credit for, which probably sounds stupid after a 16-0 drubbing, but I truly believe the teams are closer than that,' former England captain Edwards tells The Athletic. Advertisement 'I know the Aussies believe we're closer than that, too, because I've coached a lot out there and they've got a lot of respect. 'When I first came in, the objective was to get our players playing more county cricket and putting an emphasis on performance in that, and it was really important for us to win both series against West Indies. 'The other thing I had to deal with was the perception of us as a group, which, after the winter, wasn't in the greatest of places. It was just looking at our professionalism and making players really understand their roles as England cricketers. 'I've been super impressed with how the players have responded. Now we're ready to take on the next challenge, which is India.' That perception is a key point. One of the biggest controversies in England's development initially began when one of their former players and now a leading commentator, Alex Hartley, criticised the players' fitness after their shock defeat to the West Indies in Dubai in October and their early exit from the T20 World Cup. 'About 80 per cent of the England team are fit and athletic enough, but there are girls in that side who are letting the team down on fitness,' Hartley told the BBC. The row escalated when Sophie Ecclestone, one of England's leading players and former No 1-ranked bowler in the world, took the criticism personally and refused to do a pitch-side interview with her former team-mate at both England and Lancashire after the first T20 international of the Ashes, by which point England were 6-0 down. Hartley made that snub public when she later said on the BBC: 'I've been hung out to dry. The reason I said England aren't as fit as Australia is because I want them to compete. I want them to be better and to win. But I've been given the cold shoulder. Not by everyone, but a few individual coaches and players. They won't even look at me.' Advertisement Hartley, as a recently retired player and former team-mate of many of the players, should be commended for doing her job as a broadcaster and saying it as it is. But perhaps the problem came with her use of the word 'fitness'. Only in April, one of the highest profile male cricketers of the modern age in Andrew Flintoff said in a Disney Plus documentary that fat shaming 25 years ago had driven him to bulimia. Tammy Beaumont is one of the most experienced members of the England side and still a key figure in the new era as an opening batter in all three formats. 'It's a difficult one,' Beaumont, 34, tells The Athletic. 'If the word athleticism had been used, it would have been more accurate. I have spoken to Alex Hartley about it. We go way back and used to live with each other — and I think she now thinks athleticism is the word she should have used. That would be a fair comment. 'The Australians were more athletic than us in the field. Fitness-wise, we don't disclose our scores, but some people would be surprised to see we're not as unfit as has been said. But, yes, we have to move better in the field, we have to take the catches under pressure, and we understand that. 'More eyes are on women's cricket now. We want to be treated as equally as possible to our male counterparts, and they would have received criticism for similar things. 'We have to own up to the fact we as players weren't good enough on the pitch and we handled things off it in a way we regret. That's something we really want to prove to all the supporters. We care so much about English cricket and each other.' Edwards concurs. 'It was really hard as an ex-player and someone who cares enormously about the women's game and the England team to witness that. 'It was a great reminder of where the game has reached. Gone are the days when there were two or three people in the ground watching and not too many bothered about it. Advertisement 'That it got that level of media attention is where we want the game to be. It was a real shock to the players because they probably weren't prepared for that level of scrutiny. 'What we can't move away from is that Australia are a more athletic and probably fitter team than us, but from my experiences, the level of fitness I've witnessed since I've come in has been of a really high standard. 'The players are under no illusions now as to what is expected of them as England cricketers. I've seen a real shift in that area. After the winter, everyone was aware that the focus was on fitness rather than cricket, and I want the focus to be on cricket. It's whether we're winning games and batting or bowling well, rather than that. That can't be a talking point moving forward.' Ecclestone missed the West Indies matches with a knee injury and then took a temporary break to protect her well-being and manage another minor injury. But she is due to make her return in Nottingham on Saturday. 'It has been a tough few months for Soph,' says Edwards. 'We know we're a better team with her in it, but it needed to be right for everyone before she came back. 'I'm looking forward to having her back doing what she loves doing and is good at. She has the full support of all the players and staff.' When Edwards started playing for England in 1996, aged just 16, women cricketers were forced to wear skirts and paid for the privilege of representing their country. By the time she was controversially replaced as England captain in 2016 by coach Mark Robinson, she had made 309 appearances in all formats and had seen the women's game become professional and grow beyond all recognition. She has become just as adept as a coach, initially with Hampshire and Southern Vipers before gaining success in Australia and India with Sydney Sixers and Mumbai Indians. It was inevitable she would coach England and she will bring discipline and empathy. Advertisement 'I love coaching and this job came at the right time,' says Edwards. 'I'm pretty hard but fair as a coach. I expect high standards of everyone, but I'm a lot of fun as well. 'I care enormously about the people I work with and I work bloody hard. You have to take people on that journey with you and building relationships is a big part of that. Hopefully, I've done that quite well over the last few years.' Beaumont is relishing working again with her former England opening batting partner. 'She's an England legend and that comes with the respect it demands,' she says. 'She commands respect for everything she did as a player, but now her coaching does, too. She's a winner and not afraid to say now it's all about winning. That's really something that we're all on board with.' Schedule: June 28: first T20 international (Trent Bridge, Nottingham); July 1: 2nd T20i (Bristol); July 4: 3rd T20i (The Oval, London); July 9: fourth T20i (Old Trafford, Manchester); July 12: 5th T20i (Edgbaston). July 16: first one-day international (Southampton); July 19: 2nd ODI (Lord's, London); July 22: 3rd ODI (Chester-le-Street, Durham). Squads (T20 internationals) England: Nat Sciver-Brunt (captain), Em Arlott, Tammy Beaumont, Lauren Bell, Alice Capsey, Charlie Dean, Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Ecclestone, Lauren Filer, Amy Jones (wicketkeeper), Paige Scholfield, Linsey Smith, Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Issy Wong. India: Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wicketkeeper), Yastika Bhatia (wicketkeeper), Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Sree Charani, Shuchi Upadhyay, Amanjot Kaur, Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Gaud, Sayali Satghare.
