Two weeks on from the announcement that Sussex’s Mark Robinson has been appointed Head Coach of England Women, the dust is beginning to settle.

Robinson will now have met with captain Charlotte Edwards, and will be gearing up for his first encounter with the England squad at Loughborough before Christmas, as he meets the women whose development he will be responsible for over the coming months (well, most of them – some are already in Australia or will soon be heading that way, bound for the inaugural WBBL).

How will he fare? The worry with airlifting in a coach who has worked almost exclusively in the men’s game is always going to be that they fail to understand the unique needs and challenges of women’s cricket. But CRICKETher – as we tweeted at the time – were uniformly impressed with Robinson and are optimistic about the future with him at the helm.

Why? Because, for someone who openly admits that he knows very little about women’s cricket, Robinson’s intuitive sense about the game is spot on.

This was clear in the press conference a fortnight ago, at which some journalists – perhaps inevitably, given that Robinson has recently interviewed for the position – seemed to see his appointment as a mere stepping-stone to the “real job”, coach of the England men’s team. Robinson, though, was unequivocal in his response:

“The women’s game stands by itself now, it shouldn’t be compared. It has its own identity, its own stage of development, and I want to play my part in continuing the fantastic work that’s gone on before, the momentum.”

CRICKETher’s mission statement, from the lips of the man of the moment himself!

And Robinson’s commitment to all levels of the game is also very evident. On the day of his appointment he told CRICKETher: “Instinctively I want to help as much as I can where I can…We’ve got to make sure that [the hundreds of coaches round the country] feel joined up to the top as well. I’ve got to do my bit to make sure that the women’s game keeps moving in the right direction.”

He had already spent time working with Sussex girls alongside coach Charlotte Burton – whose commitment to the game he praised effusively in his first press conference – and will no doubt be looking to her for some advice about his new role.

While much of the critique of the ECB from those involved in the women’s game has come from those at grassroots level, it seems they can be reassured by Robinson’s attitude. CRICKETher certainly is.

If Robinson has not yet had to walk the walk –  that will have to wait until England’s arrival in South Africa in February, and beyond that the World Twenty20 in India – he certainly talks the right talk…and that is a pretty good start!

Earlier this month the ICC announced their new rankings system for women’s cricket, which combines results from all three formats of the game into one table, to produce the Definitive List of where each team sits in relation to the others.

As we pointed out on CRICKETher at the time, the fact that Australia lead the way is no surprise, but below that there are some quite interesting placings!

The new ranking system has been devised by David Kendix, the same statistician who calculates the men’s rankings. While his exact methodology has not been revealed, we are told that equal weighting has been given to the Test, ODI and T20 formats.

There has been a lot of scepticism about the merits of a system which combines all three formats, especially given the dearth of Test match cricket currently played in the women’s game.

In some ways, therefore, the new ranking system is not hugely meaningful. In fact, CRICKETher would strongly advise that you follow Martin Davies’ new ODI and T20 rankings available over on Women’s Cricket Blog – England are currently at the top of the T20 rankings, and Australia are heading up the ODI rankings. These will be updated after every game and are an excellent reflection of the true state of affairs in depth.

Having said that… the ICC should be given some credit here for what they are trying to do: promote the women’s game. Having a single rankings system simplifies this process. It gives meaning to matches like the recent Pakistan-West Indies ODI, whereby seventh-ranked Pakistan pulled off an unexpected and exciting win against fifth-ranked West Indies. And it gives some context to bilateral series’ which, unlike the women’s Ashes, often still go under the radar.

Giving the media something to latch onto, and helping them create coherent stories and narratives about the women’s game, can surely only help women’s cricket in the long-run. So, even if it is via an oversimplified methodology, CRICKETher think that there’s room for both the ICC rankings and the more sophisticated WCB ones.

It was announced last week that Paul Shaw will be stepping down at the end of the year as England Head of Performance, to be replaced by a new Head Coach in due course.

The question on everyone’s lips is: who should replace him?

CRICKETher thinks there are several possible contenders…

1. Mark Lane

Lane was previously England coach between 2008 and 2013, during which time England had their most successful year ever, winning the World Cup, T20 World Cup and the Ashes all in the space of one calendar year (2009). A recent interview with Lane by Martin Davies of Women’s Cricket Blog suggests that he might well be willing to resume his old post, if asked. Given the lack of coaches around with direct experience and knowledge of the women’s game, he surely has to be a contender – but would the ECB see re-appointing him as a backward step?

2. Salliann Briggs

The Head Coach at Loughborough MCCU, Briggs will be familiar with the majority of the current contracted players, many of whom are either current students at Loughborough or have previously studied there. She has also coached on the England Under 19s Women’s Development Programme and would be well-placed to assess the talent currently coming through the ranks. But does she have the top-level experience to take over the reins from Shaw?

3. Jen Laycock

Earlier this year Laycock made it onto the All Out Cricket Women’s Cricket Power List, and for good reason. She is currently Head Coach on the MCC Young Cricketers program, which provides a vital link between age-group and senior cricket – giving the up and coming generation of 19/20 year-olds the opportunity to spend a summer playing as full-time pros. The likes of Heather Knight and Danni Wyatt have come through the program. She also coaches the newly-branded Lancashire Thunder – a team she previously captained – and works as Lancashire’s Women’s and Girls Development Officer, helping grow the sport across the county. Aged just 26, Jen has risen rapidly through her coaching badges. Could she make the step-up to the top job?

4. Beth Morgan

Having captained Middlesex for 8 years, Morgan stepped down as skipper at the end of last season and this year served as player-coach for her county, who finished in a respectable mid-table position in the championship. Tactically astute, a brilliant (wo)man-manager and with a wealth of knowledge about the women’s game – she herself represented England between 2003 and 2011 – she is CRICKETher’s current favourite for the job. But would she have the authority to coach a team led by Charlotte Edwards, the captain Morgan served under during most of her international career?

5. Cathryn Fitzpatrick

Following her 16 years playing international cricket for Australia, terrorising batsmen with her fast bowling, Fitzpatrick took over as head coach of Australia in 2012. In her 3-year stint in the role, she took Australia to 3 World Cup victories, and their recent anointment as number 1 team in the world, according to the new ICC rankings, is surely at least partly attributable to her. She stepped down from the top job in May so would certainly be free to take over the England role – but would the ECB prefer to look closer to home?

CRICKETher thinks the field is still wide open for other possible candidates to emerge, but we’re interested to know who YOU think should get the top job? Vote now!

This year’s County Championship and T20 Cup have recently concluded – in what looks set to be the last domestic season of its kind ever.

This time next year the inaugural T20 element of the Women’s Cricket Super League will have taken place – assuming all goes according to plan over the next few months.

In a recent interview Clare Connor outlined the rationale behind the Super League as follows:

“We wanted a competition that would excite and engage new players and new fans that would be a good shop window for women’s domestic cricket in this country. A competition that could eventually drive commercial income through TV and sponsorship revenues and a competition that would give us another platform other than international women’s cricket to grow the profile of the game. Women’s domestic cricket doesn’t achieve that.”

The suggestion is that the current domestic T20 competition has failed to secure the interest of the public in the same way that England Women have in recent years.

If that is the case, it is surely at least partly the fault of the ECB.

This season the following things have occurred:

1. T20 Finals Day – one of the most exciting days in the domestic calendar, which in previous years has attracted a crowd of several hundred – was cancelled ahead of this season, the winner of the T20 Cup this season being calculated simply based on who had scored the most points in the initial four rounds. No explanation was offered as to why the change was made, and CRICKETher are still not entirely clear about the rationale behind this.

2. On the final day of T20 games, it came down to a three-way tie between Yorkshire, Sussex and Kent on points, after all three won their final games. The winner would be decided by Net Run Rate… but who was it? Frantic calculations by Martin Davies from Women’s Cricket Blog initially suggested that Yorkshire had won… until the official scorecards were published on Play Cricket 24 hours later, and it was shown that Sussex were in fact the champions, by the tiniest of margins (0.02).

Was anyone from the ECB on hand to do the required calculations on Sunday evening? No – the whole situation was farcical.

3. Sussex were presented with the T20 Cup after their final 50-over game against Berkshire, by Tim Shutt of the Sussex Cricket Board. The ECB once again showed their commitment to the domestic competition, by… sending no representative to the presentation whatsoever.

This is all in addition to the ridiculous way in which the 50-over Cup was decided this season, whereby Yorkshire were able to win the entire Championship by refusing to play 3rd-placed Sussex, with nothing in the regulations to prevent this from happening.

Sadly all these things are indicative of the fact that, despite all the progress made at international level in recent years, very little attention (or finances) have been devoted to advancing the domestic game.

The Super League is an exciting prospect. If it succeeds where the County Championship has failed… if indeed it does bring in sponsorship revenue and grow crowds at domestic games… it will be at least partly because of the time, money and effort invested in it by the ECB.

It just seems a shame that it has taken this long for the domestic game to be given any kind of priority.