A BIT OF FUN: Our “Never Played For England” XIs

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A comment on Twitter prompted us to ask ourselves who we’d have in our “Never Played For England” XI?

From those who will almost certainly play for England one day, to those who perhaps deserved to but never will, these are ours!

(And don’t forget to let us know who we’ve missed out, or even tell us your XI, in “Have Your Say” below!)

Raf’s XI

  1. Kirstie White +
  2. Eve Jones *
  3. Emma Lamb
  4. Naomi Dattani
  5. Sophia Dunkley
  6. Amanda Potgeiter
  7. Freya Davies
  8. Kirstie Gordon
  9. Katie Levick
  10. Katie Thompson
  11. Lauren Bell

Syd’s XI

  1. Emma Lamb
  2. Eve Jones
  3. Kirstie White +
  4. Georgia Adams
  5. Sophie Luff *
  6. Maia Bouchier
  7. Freya Davies
  8. Megan Belt
  9. Kirstie Gordon
  10. Katie Levick
  11. Lauren Bell

And now the $64,000 question:

14 thoughts on “A BIT OF FUN: Our “Never Played For England” XIs”

  1. Helen Shipman would be a strong candidate for such an XI. Academy level player that ended her cricketing career in a blaze of glory by scoring 126 to keep Warks in Div 1.

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  2. Think you’ve both missed a few older players off here.

    Alexia walker scored heaps of runs and took wickets for fun against the best players but was never given a chance. There were others that too, just didn’t ‘fit’ the mould of the ECBs idea of what a female cricketer should look like.

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    • Depends on ones definition of a cap with Alexia Walker. She played for England in the Women’s European Championship 2001. I think there is some spat as to whether that was a cap or not (something like ECB say it wasn’t and ICC say it was, or something like that).

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      • A vote some years ago by a group of entirely Sussex supporters rather surprisingly came to a unanimous decision. They chose Yvonne Craven of Berkshire – as for Alexia Walker’s England situation, I would respect the ICC’s thoughts that it was an England team that played as so she is entitled to an England cap. Several other players were also affected by this ICC/ECB disagreement.

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      • In terms of the Euros 2001, that would be CE Gough, LM Joyce and KGE Oakenfold – all of whom gained their only caps during that competition.
        EL Donnison and KM Wilkins gained their only caps in the 1999 version and CL Whichcord and R Lupton gained their only caps in the 1995 version (the 1995 version also gave a certain CJ Connor her one day debut)

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  3. Thea Brookes now of Warwickshire. Gave great selfless service to Worcestershire and proved in the KSL how to find the boundaries.

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  4. mine was close then when asked on current players/form…
    bryony smith, sophia dunkley, sophie luff *, eve jones, emma lamb, ellie threlkeld +, linsey smith, freya davies, kirstie gordon, katie levick, hazelle garton
    I also had a list of past greats including craven and potgieter

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  5. Syd’s team edging the vote… No Dunkley, but the order looks more balanced / realistic. Close but you’d expect that given they appear to contain 7 of the same players!

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    • Across the 1989, 1990, 1991, 1995, 1999 and 2001 versions of the European Championships the following players played for England and didn’t play for them otherwise:-
      AL Walker (2001)
      KGE Oakenfold (2001)
      CE Gough (2001)
      LM Joyce (2001)
      KM Wilkins (1999)
      EL Donnison (1999)
      CL Whichcord (1995)
      M Moralee (1991)

      R Lupton (in my earlier list, did get 1 Test cap so is indisputably capped)

      JL Crump only ever played an ODI in the European Championships (1989). Whether she played a test or not I cannot establish.

      For many years CE Taylor held the England ODI cap record at 105. This 105 includes 10 caps from the 1989, 1990 and 1995 European Championships.
      This might suggest the spat between the ICC and ECB did refer to all the European Championships.

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      • Trey that again …..
        “This might suggest the spat between the ICC and ECB did NOT refer to all the European Championships”

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      • I suspect it didn’t apply to all – the one I watched constituted an embarrassment to the England team but there are times you’ll make a mess of it and the opposition will be sensible enough to take advantage. The one at Bradfield College was one of those. It included a hatrick by an Irish bowler – not common in any form of cricket! I say hats off to them for being the better on the day – which is the only day that counts!

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  7. The 2001 European Championship is the only one where there exists a dispute over England caps. I am afraid that (though no doubt the ECB would deny this!) this probably comes down to sour grapes – England lost to Ireland in what was effectively the final and henceforth decided that they had treated the competition as a non-international one.

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