Charlotte Edwards to make England players ‘accountable for their fitness'
Charlotte Edwards has promised to make England's players 'more accountable for their fitness' as she seeks to improve the team's fortunes after her appointment as women's head coach.
The 45-year-old insisted that despite England women's recent troubles against Australia they were capable of winning this year's 50-over World Cup in India, saying she was 'really confident we can turn things around very quickly'. Jon Lewis was sacked as coach last month after a miserable winter in which group-stage elimination at the T20 World Cup was followed by a 16-0 rout in the Ashes.
Clare Connor, the England and Wales Cricket Board's managing director of England women, led a 'very thorough, comprehensive and honest' review of that series which 'told us that we did need a significant reset in terms of leadership and the environment'. The ECB chose to abandon its normal open recruitment process once it became clear that Edwards, who since retiring as a player had enjoyed success as a coach with Hampshire, Mumbai Indians and Sydney Sixers, would accept the job.
Edwards, who won 309 caps across formats, 220 of them as captain, before her retirement as a player in 2016, officially starts work on Monday, when the players' fitness will be assessed as they gather at Loughborough. 'I'm going to judge for myself where the team are with their fitness,' Edwards said.
'I will make the players more accountable for their fitness, that's something I'm going to do. But I wouldn't have taken on this role if I didn't think that in six months' time we could win a World Cup in India, because I think we've got the playing group to do that. We've got a lot of hard work [to do] and a lot of honesty but I'm really confident that we can turn things around very quickly.
'I'm under no illusions, coming into this role, it's about winning. I think coaches are sometimes too scared to say we want to win. That's our job. My job is to win games of cricket and it's how we go and do that now.
One of Edwards's first tasks will be appointing a new captain to replace Heather Knight, who stepped down last month after nine years, as the team starts to build towards the white-ball series against West Indies that begins next month. 'I'm pretty clear on where I want to take the team and who I want to be involved,' Edwards said. 'I think it's important that we get that person announced sooner rather than later.'
The ECB is to start the process of recruiting a national selector, for the first time since the professionalisation of the women's game, later this month, with Connor saying that 'bringing in additional outside perspectives is important'. They plan to increase focus on county performances and all England players, injury permitting, will be available for the first seven rounds of the Metro Bank One-Day Cup which starts on 19 April.
'There's got to be greater communication between the counties and England and I felt that hadn't been there for the last little bit,' Edwards said. 'The players are going to play more, they're going to be involved with their counties. I'm going to be communicating with those county coaches more about the style of play we want to play, how we want to go about things.
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'I think for us to be successful, we have to work together. I want to make county cricket really competitive, [so] we're picking on performances. We've got a lot of young players who, for me, haven't played enough cricket.'
Edwards described England's winter as 'a big wake-up call to everyone in the game', saying: 'It was just so frustrating because they didn't play anywhere near their potential, I know those players are better than that.
'The players need to be honest with themselves about how they've performed in recent times. I need to be honest with them about where I think they're at. I think that will go a long way, and I think we've just got to work really, really hard.'
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