Berkshire have appointed a new coaching team for 2016, led by ex England Test batsman Aftab Habib, assisted by two former Berkshire players: Emma Boswell and Hannah Burr. CRICKETher met up with them this week to find out more…

New Head Coach Aftab Habib played two Tests for England in 1999; and after a successful county cricket career which included a Championship title with Leicestershire and two 1,000-run seasons, he made the move into coaching. He has previously run Women’s & Girls’ development in Buckinghamshire, and more recently coached the Hong Kong national side.

Assistant Coach Emma Boswell meanwhile is recently retired from the Royal Navy, having spent much of the past few years beneath the waves in a nuclear submarine; but still finding time to skipper the Navy’s women’s cricket team. She and fellow Assistant Coach Hannah Burr played together at Berkshire in the late 90s and early 00s, and will now team up again, working with both the 1st XI and the age-group squads.

Aftab Habib, Hannah Burr and Emma Boswell Meet to Plot Berkshire’s Season

Berkshire’s senior squad is likely to have a familiar look to it this season. Though sadly Aussie overseas Crinny Hall won’t be returning, the core of the team which came 4th in last years Women’s County Championship are expected to be reunited for the 2016 campaign.

Beyond the immediate present, Berkshire are looking to build a more sustainable foundation for the women’s game in the county, hoping to emulate some of the success which Sussex have had in this regard under the leadership of Charlotte Burton.

One target is to broaden the base of the women’s game, to the point where there is a genuinely competitive “selection” process for the squads at both senior and age-ground level. This will partly be achieved by strengthening links between the county and the clubs in the area which run girls’ sections.

Another objective is to create the next generation of female coaches for the women’s game, by encouraging all the players in the age-group squads to begin the process of earning their badges by working with the age-groups below them, with the hopes that the next cohort of players graduating from the U19s will have already have achieved their Level 1 and be well on their way to Level 2.

Of course, Berkshire don’t have the luxuries available to some of their rivals with First Class men’s county facilities behind them; but you only have to look at the fate of relegated Nottinghamshire and Lancashire last season to see that sometimes that’s not everything – something that Berkshire’s new team are determined to prove once again in 2016.

The ECB has announced a squad of 15 England Academy players who will be travelling to Sri Lanka to play in a tri-series against Australia’s Shooting Stars and the Sri Lanka ‘A’ side later this month.

The squad is as follows:

• Georgia Adams (Sussex)
• Holly Armitage (Yorkshire)
• Stephanie Butler (Staffordshire)
• Kate Cross (Lancashire)
• Freya Davies (Sussex)
• Sophia Dunkley (Middlesex)
• Sophie Ecclestone (Lancashire)
• Alex Hartley (Middlesex)
• Evelyn Jones (Staffordshire)
• Emma Lamb (Lancashire)
• Beth Langston (Essex)
• Sophie Luff (Somerset)
• Alex MacDonald (Yorkshire)
• Ellie Threlkeld (Lancashire)
• Fran Wilson (Middlesex)

Middlesex are well-represented, with batsman Sophia Dunkley, spinner Alex Hartley and the newly-contracted Fran Wilson – who may consider herself unlucky to have missed out on a place in the World Twenty20 squad – all included.

Kate Cross, who the ECB clearly do not see as a Twenty20 bowler and who will not feature in the forthcoming WWT20, is the other contracted player to appear on the squad list. Meanwhile both Lauren Winfield and Laura Marsh will be staying home in England, with the selectors evidently feeling that it might be time to blood some fresh talent.

The Academy team are scheduled to play in six 50-over matches and one Twenty20 while in Sri Lanka. They will be accompanied by new assistant coaches, former England and Sussex seamer James Kirtley and ex-Leicestershire batsman Tim Boon.

Bradford’s Telegraph and Argus has written an article on the Women’s Cricket Super League; and it’s one of those pieces that you sometimes just have to call out:

Pyrah’s Diamonds set to sparkle in Women’s Super League

Yes – it might be a Women’s Cricket Super League (the clue is in the word “women’s” chaps!!) but the Telegraph and Argus have managed to make it all about a man – the headline, the (only) photograph and the byline – all focusing on coach Richard Pyrah.

And quite right too: if you start giving women headlines and photographs, they’ll want the vote next… and then where will we be?

(To be fair, the piece does name 3 women… buried in the final paragraph… so really, we don’t know what we are snarking about!!)

Here they are…

• Lancashire Thunder
• Loughborough Lightning
• Southern Vipers [Hampshire etc.]
• Surrey Stars
• Western Storm [Somerset, Gloucestershire, etc.]
• Yorkshire Diamonds

A couple of interesting notes:

• Lancashire have been allowed to keep their semi-official “County Championship” name, although it isn’t supposed to be the same team, and there is no guarantee in theory that they will have the same players.
• Surrey will brand themselves as “Surrey” rather than “London”; which will no doubt draw-in supporters of Surrey’s men’s team… but may also exclude cricket fans north of the river!
• Loughborough have been permitted to extend their existing “Lightning” brand, which is already used by their Superleague [sic. – one word!] netball team.

Here at CRICKETher, we’re passionate about women’s cricket at all levels, including club cricket. It’s our mission to offer coverage of women’s (and girls’) club cricket wherever we can! Our ‘Club of the Month’ feature will focus on one women’s or girls’ club every month, giving you the lowdown on their highs, lows, and everything in between.

If you’d like to see your club featured here, get in touch – we’d love to hear from you!

Catford Wanderers was originally formed as the women’s section of Blackheath Cricket Club in 2004, but moved across to join the Catford Wanderers club in 2012. The move came about because of Catford’s frustration at the lack of matches which they got to play on Blackheath’s main ground. Current club member Sarah Berman recalls that “in 2010 we played every home game on a different field which got quite frustrating”. In 2011 Blackheath struck a deal with Catford Wanderers for the women to play all their home games there and “after seeing the level of interest, support and commitment to us amongst the guys there, we decided to move to Catford permanently.”

They now play at Catford Wanderers Sports Club, which has good facilities: a really good square, a clubhouse with a cheap bar, and decent nets. A couple of years ago the club invested in new covers, which Sarah says has made a massive difference. They play in the Women’s Cricket Southern League, and last season won the 40-over part of their division. This season they are moving to a new, tougher division and are hoping to hold their own.

Former Kent captain Evette “Swoop” Burton is one of their star players, and Catford is also the former home club of ECB Women’s Media Manager Beth Barrett-Wild (formerly of Essex), who opened the batting for them in the 2013 and 2014 seasons. They are working on increasing their junior representation, and the club’s junior chairman does a lot of work with local schools with the aim of bringing more boys and girls through into the sport.

One thing that becomes obvious, talking to Sarah, is that the club love their nicknames! Current captain, Kiwi Greer Hill, is known as Judderbar (the word that New Zealanders use for speed bump). Sarah herself is known as Gibraltar, or “Gib” for short, due – in her own words – to her “rock-like batting”!

They are also a tight-knit bunch, and often meet up to watch cricket together and for socials out of season. As Sarah puts it, “friendship and enjoyment (on and off the pitch) is the core thing about the team.”

2015 awards night. Photo credit: Laura Daniels

Happy club memories include their Holland tour in 2009, in which “any time that wasn’t spent on the pitch was spent in a bar”, and the time in 2013 against Bishop’s Stortford when Jimmy Anderson turned up to open their new pavilion and ended up as a spectator! Cricketing-wise, the highlight to date was bowling out Stoke d’Abernon for 81 back in 2009, thus beating a team stacked with Surrey U17s including a certain Nat Sciver.

Shout-outs are due to scorer Chris – the mum of team stalwart Jemma – and the team mascot Cricket Sheep (who you can follow on twitter @cricketsheep!), as well as the team’s admin queen and umpire Yvann.

Club mascot Cricket Sheep. Photo credit: Laura Daniels

Sarah says that new players of all standards are very very welcome. Contact Yvann by email here or on 07890 269959 to find out more. The club also have a facebook page which you can visit at:

facebook.com/CatfordWanderersWomensCricket.

As England fly home from their tour to South Africa, new coach Mark Robinson undoubtedly has some issues to reflect upon; but he also has some reasons to be cheerful:

1. They Took Home The Silverware

England might have lost a couple of matches they would have hoped to have won – particularly the ODI, when the loss also meant dropping points to a rival in the race for automatic World Cup qualification. But even Australia lose the odd match here and there (the Southern Stars have dropped points to both India and New Zealand so far this year) and at the end of the day, England recovered to bring home the silverware in both the ODI and T20 series.

2. They Have Taylor and Shrubsole

As if we needed reminding, England have in Taylor and Shrubsole two world-beaters who could carry them to WWT20 glory in India. Despite a couple of blips in ODIs 2 and 3, Taylor topped the batting numbers with 278 runs at an average of 56 and a Strike Rate of 125; whilst Shrubsole looks to be back in the sort of form that made her Player of the Tournament at the last WWT20 – taking 15 wickets at an average of 16.5*.

3. They Have a Coach Who Is Doing The Right Things

Mark Robinson’s reign might not have gotten off to the perfect start, but he has done a lot of things right on this tour. Despite what you might think, I firmly believe that one of them was not dropping Tammy Beaumont for the final T20, despite her failures in the first two matches; and in the final game she proved something – to him, to me… and possibly even to herself – by carrying England home when things were actually starting to look just a little shaky for a moment! Similarly the faith shown in Amy Jones and Danni Wyatt will also hopefully start to pay dividends, as Mark starts to make his… er… MARK!!

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* Stats include the warm-up matches.

With South Africa winning the 2nd T20, that series now stands at 1-1; and with van Niekerk in the form she’s in, you’d be a fool to bet against the Women Proteas taking the silverware in the decider on Sunday.

There is little doubt that South Africa continue to improve, and I stand by my predictions that (1) they are a very good bet to reach the 2017 World Cup final, and (2) Dane van Niekerk will be the best player in the world in her generation… Meg Lanning or no Meg Lanning!

South Africa’s success has been generally attributed to the impact of increasing professionalism, with most of the team now on semi-pro contracts. But it is also the case that they seem to have been blessed with some very good young players – not just van Niekerk, but Suné Luus, for example – a leg-spinner whose action is so smooth you have to wonder if she actually has a shoulder… or does her arm just rotate in a large spoonful of treacle?

Meanwhile England have… Tammy Beaumont – over 50 internationals, with a highest score of 44 and an average just-about scraping into double-figures.

Let there be no doubt that we consider “TB” a very, very good county player. If she were a man, she would have had a solid career at a middling First Class county… a Notts or a Somerset… with a benefit year at the end of it, followed by a comfortable retirement, perhaps in a coaching position at a minor public school… doubtless earning a lot more that she does now as a centrally contracted England professional.

But one thing she probably wouldn’t have done is played for England.

So you have to ask what Mark Robinson saw that persuaded him to select her in his squad for the World T20?

Well.. in fact… you don’t have to ask, because we know – he saw her in the nets at Loughborough. And yet it is increasingly clear to everyone who has followed the game for a number of years (and to be fair to Robinson, he’s been very honest that he hasn’t…) that the nets at Loughborough just aren’t walking the walk.

Ask yourself this: which England players have got better over the past two years, since they holed-up at Loughborough as “full time pros”?

(With apologies to Private Eye…)

1. Heather Knight.
2. Er…
3. That’s it!

And even in the case of (1) we suspect this has got a lot to do with the two winters she has spent out in Australia, under the tutelage of the excellent Julia Price at Tasmania Roar / Hobart Hurricanes.

It is hard not to think that England stand in sharp contrast to South Africa’s bright, young future – an aging squad, at least one of whom will almost certainly never play international cricket again; and a very shallow pipeline, which leaves us turning back to players who have already shown that they don’t have quite what it takes at this level.

If Mark Robinson didn’t know it then, we imagine he’s realising it now: there is a vast gulf between English domestic cricket and the international game, and players who are very good at county, and look classy in the nets against a bowling machine they know better than the back of their own hand, can be found-out awfully quickly in the heat of international battle.

When we first met Robinson back in November, he told the assembled press corps that England didn’t need radical change. Perhaps he was just being polite to the old regime? Perhaps not? But when Robinson said that, the editor and I glanced at each other, both thinking the same thing – if we are going to compete for world cups, radical change over the longer term is really now the only option we’ve got!