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Yahoo
5 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
New mum Sciver-Brunt was set to miss Windies series
England's Nat Sciver-Brunt was set to miss the ongoing West Indies series on maternity leave before being made captain, says her wife Katherine. Sciver-Brunt, 32, was named captain in April, a month after her son, Theo, who was carried by former England bowler Katherine, was born. Advertisement "Nat was entitled to four months' maternity leave, not being the birth mother," Katherine Sciver-Brunt told BBC Test Match Special. "She took three weeks of that because England wanted her back for this series. "That was a huge sacrifice because those first eight weeks are so hard. "No-one would usually go back after three weeks, and Nat was pre-arranged to not play in this tournament and come back for the India series [which starts on 28 June]." Theo was with Sciver-Brunt during the T20 series which concluded on Monday and the first one-day international on Friday in Derby, where Katherine was working as a commentator for the BBC. Advertisement The matches were England's first under the all-rounder and new coach Charlotte Edwards, who were appointed after Heather Knight and Jon Lewis were sacked amid the fallout from last winter's Ashes defeat. Katherine travelled alongside England while pregnant throughout the winter but remained at home during the Women's Premier League in February and March. Had she gone into labour while Nat was at the tournament in India, her wife would not have made it home in time for the birth. Nat is the first mother to play for England since Arran Brindle, who played her last international in 2014. Advertisement "There were talks of a stand-in captain coming in for this series and that was a hard question for England," Katherine Sciver-Brunt said. "But ultimately Lottie [Edwards] wanted Nat and I couldn't deny her that opportunity towards the back end of her career. "If I was unhappy or wasn't sure, Nat would not have done it. She is selfless in that way and that is why she makes such a good captain." Sciver-Brunt's comments come after the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced an update to its maternity policy on Friday. Previously England players were guaranteed their full salary for the first 13 weeks post-childbirth and a percentage thereafter but they will now receive 12 months' fully paid leave, plus an automatic contract extension and support with childcare and breastfeeding facilities. Advertisement County players will get six months' paid maternity leave plus the contract extension. Nat had egg freezing treatment last summer and said she would like to carry a baby after her cricket career. "When you talk about giving birth, it takes more than a year to get your body back into fitness and revert back to what you were," Katherine said. "You have worked so hard as a female to get to that point in your career and then you have to question stepping back and having to juggle starting a family. "Even deciding to extract and freeze your eggs, there is time that has to be taken out for that. Advertisement "If you are an exceptional athlete you often have a long career ahead of you, but not if you want to start a family. "Normalising this conversation and to inspiring people that it can be done, there needs to be more of that and I think it will happen."
NDTV
5 days ago
- Sport
- NDTV
RCB Star, On England Duty, Pays Special Tribute To Virat Kohli After Match-Winning Knock
Royal Challengers Bengaluru opening batter Jacob Bethell had to leave the franchise ahead of the start of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 playoffs due to national commitments. Bethell might be away physically, but a part of him still remains in India with RCB. As the hard-hitting batter smashed a whopping 82-run knock off just 53 balls for England against the West Indies in the first ODI, he decided to dedicate his match-winning performance to RCB legend Virat Kohli, the man with whom he spent the last few weeks. Bethell's 82-run knock took England to a gigantic total of 400/8 against the West Indies. Bethell gave RCB and Virat their due credit, saying he has become a much better batter after spending about two months in India as part of his IPL commitments. Though Bethell didn't get to feature in many matches for RCB, due to competition against fellow Englishman Phil Salt, he still decided to laud Kohli and his IPL teammates for the impact they had on him. "I really found that experience very beneficial for my game. I feel like I am a better player now than I was two months before I went to India. Virat Kohli was great with the information and how he goes about his batting," Bethell told Sky Sports Cricket after his match-winning show against Windies. "All I had to do was ask, and he was great with that stuff. Obviously, being a part of that tournament was really special. There is a lot of noise around it, so it was great to be a part of it," he added. Jacob Bethell with his 3rd ODI fifty! — Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) May 29, 2025 Bethell also spoke about the infectious impact Kohli's energy had on him when he walked out to bat with the iconic India batter, wearing the RCB shirt. "I was always going to be in the IPL after I signed that contract. I watched the boys do well from afar and really enjoyed it," he said on BBC Test Match Special. "Virat was great. He was happy to share lots of advice with me, and Andy Flower was a great coach, too. I felt the energy when I went out to bat with Virat, and that is something I will take into my game, that intensity," he added. England won the match convincingly by 238 runs.
Hindustan Times
6 days ago
- Sport
- Hindustan Times
Virat Kohli gets credit for England's win over West Indies as Jacob Bethell dedicates match-winning knock to RCB legend
The Harry Brook era in white-ball cricket has gotten off to an ideal start after England thrashed West Indies by 238 runs in the first ODI of the three-match series on Thursday at Edgbaston, Birmingham. Jacob Bethell was adjudged Player of the Match for his match-winning knock of 82 runs off 53 balls with the help of eight fours and five sixes. This knock enabled England to post 400/8 in the allotted 50 overs. After winning the Player of the Match accolade, Jacob Bethell credited Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and the experience of playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season, saying he is now a better player than he was two months ago. He also spoke about how Virat Kohli shared his experiences with him and how the India legend was exceptional in passing the information along. The left-handed Bethell played just two matches in the IPL 2025 season, scoring 67 runs at a strike rate of 171.79. Bethell was given a chance in the playing XI after Phil Salt missed two months owing to a fever. The young sensation also scored a half-century against the Chennai Super Kings at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. However, Bethell returned to England ahead of the ODIs against West Indies and RCB named Tim Seifert as his replacement for the playoffs. "I really found that experience very beneficial for my game. I feel like I am a better player now than I was two months before I went to India. Virat Kohli was great with the information and how he goes about his batting," Bethell told Sky Sports Cricket. "All I had to do was ask, and he was great with that stuff. Obviously, being a part of that tournament was really special. There is a lot of noise around it so it was great to be a part of it," he added. Jacob Bethell also opened up about the experience of batting alongside Kohli at the top order. He said that he really felt the energy, and he will learn how to incorporate intensity into his game moving ahead. Speaking on the BBC Test Match Special, Bethell remarked, 'I was always going to be in the IPL after I signed that contract. I watched the boys do well from afar and really enjoyed it.' 'Virat was great. He was happy to share lots of advice with me and Andy Flower was a great coach, too. I felt the energy when I went out to bat with Virat and that is something I will take into my game, that intensity,' he added. Speaking about the first ODI between England and West Indies, the former registered an emphatic win after bundling out the visitors for just 162 inside 27 overs. For England, Jamie Overton returned with three wickets. On the same day, RCB also progressed to their fourth IPL final after beating Punjab Kings in Mullanpur by eight wickets.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Not the coming man much longer - Bethell's arrival is due
There are a few reasons why Jacob Bethell might not have been playing for England in the first one-day international against West Indies at Edgbaston. First, and most obviously, the boy born in Barbados could have quite easily been in maroon instead of royal blue, in the away dressing room rather than on his home ground for Warwickshire. He might have remained at the rescheduled Indian Premier League (IPL), his Royal Challengers Bengaluru side marching to the final some 4,000 miles away in Chandigarh. Virat Kohli and all that. In a short international career, the 21-year-old has regularly made waves. Once again he showed why he is a cause of so much hype. Bethell's 82 from 53 balls does nothing to quieten the debate around his inclusion in the Test team. This was the left-hander's England comeback, a first home appearance since impressing in his debut Test series in New Zealand, a first international since a hamstring injury ruled him out of the Champions Trophy. It says much about Bethell's growing stature that he was so badly missed in such an awful campaign. England begin Brook era by hammering West Indies England crush West Indies by 238 runs - as it happened RCB beat Kings to reach first IPL final since 2016 There was the kerfuffle over his non-availability for the Zimbabwe Test. Bethell was the only current member of the Test squad to play in the IPL, rather than turn up at Trent Bridge. There are some who argued he made the wrong choice, especially after new white-ball captain Harry Brook pulled out of his deal with Delhi Capitals. In Bethell's defence, he was picked up by Bengaluru before his Test debut and would surely have taken advice from England coach Brendon McCullum and Test skipper Ben Stokes, two men well-versed in the IPL. More broadly, there are howls of derision when England get thumped in a limited-overs tournament, or are clueless when it comes to batting against and bowling spin. There is a T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka early next year. Bethell will have learned an immeasurable amount from sharing a dressing room with an all-time great like Kohli, playing under a coach like Andy Flower and opening the batting against Mitchell Starc, who called him "an absolute gun". Speaking to BBC Test Match Special, Bethell said: "I was always going to be in the IPL after I signed that contract. I watched the boys do well from afar and really enjoyed it. "Virat was great. He was happy to share lots of advice with me and Andy Flower was a great coach, too. I felt the energy when I went out to bat with Virat and that is something I will take into my game, that intensity." In Nottingham, Bethell was the story without being there. However Stokes chose to spin it, his "put two and two together" comments were ambiguous at best and clumsy at worst. The captain's bite back at the media probably confirmed that Bethell will be in the squad for the first Test against India, but not the XI. At Edgbaston, Bethell was the headline act. The day could have been about new captain Brook or former skipper Jos Buttler. Bethell showed he is England's superstar-in-waiting. His innings was one of patience, poise and pizzazz. He might have been unsettled by a relatively slow start of 11 from 19 deliveries, or rattled by a clonk on the head from Alzarri Joseph. Instead he eased through the gears and looked nailed on for a first hundred in senior professional cricket before losing the strike towards the end of the England innings. When West Indies dropped short, Bethell snapped into swivel pulls, the ball disappearing into the stands. When then the tourists tried to hide the ball outside off stump, he surgically dissected the field with off-drives. There was the brutality of slaps down the ground and cheek of reverse-scoops. England have talked up Bethell's potential as a left-arm spinner and when Jamie Overton needed treatment on a finger injury, Bethell was called upon in the powerplay. He snared fellow protégé Jewel Andrew, thanks to Brook's flying catch. Whatever Stokes said or meant to say at Trent Bridge, he ultimately confirmed the battle for a place in the Test side is between Bethell and Ollie Pope. England have plenty of justification for sticking with Pope. He has just made a century, is Stokes' vice-captain, has a good record at number three and has been willing to be versatile over the past 12 months. Bethell is a strong option to hold in reserve in case Pope or Zak Crawley struggle, England feel they don't need Shoaib Bashir as a frontline spinner or another injury hits Stokes. On the other hand, England under Stokes and McCullum have not shirked big selection decisions. Alex Lees, Jack Leach, James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Foakes were all moved on when they might have had reason to think they had not done a great deal wrong. Further back, in the build-up the 2005 Ashes, perhaps the last time when a period of Test cricket felt so defining for an England team, they were faced with a decision between the late Graham Thorpe and Kevin Pietersen. Thorpe had just reached 100 Test caps and his form was solid. Captain Michael Vaughan went for the flair of the uncapped Pietersen. The rest is history. Perhaps it does not matter when England decide to pull the trigger on Bethell's Test inclusion. It will come sooner or later. "He's a confident lad," said Brook. "He knows he's a good player and we all know he's an exceptional player. He's going to have a very long England career if he keeps on batting the way he does. "He brings so much to a side, he can bowl and field as well. To have a player like him in our side, for him to only be 21 and play the way he is, he's only going to go upwards if he keeps working hard on his game." Bethell will not be England's coming man for long. An arrival is due.
BBC News
23-03-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
'Edwards the only candidate England should consider'
Charlotte Edwards is the only candidate England should consider when appointing a new head coach of the women's team, says former batter Lydia are looking for a new coach and captain after Jon Lewis and Heather Knight were removed from their positions in the aftermath of a catastrophic 16-0 points defeat in the Women's Ashes earlier this year. And while there are a number of contenders to replace Lewis, Greenway believes it is the "perfect time" to appoint the hugely successful Edwards."I played most my career with her [Edwards] and I've coached with her, and I feel like she is the only name England should be looking at," Greenway, 39, told BBC Test Match Special. "I haven't spoken to her but I think this is the perfect time for her to come into this role. "When the role initially came up, when Lewis took it, I think she would have wanted to get herself a little bit more experience in the head coach role and she's had that."I'm sure the ECB will have to go through their own processes, maybe somebody like [former Australia head coach] Matthew Mott or England A coach Jon Lewis puts their name forward, but if I were them I don't think they need to look much further."Edwards' 20-year international career came to an end in 2016, with a decade spent as captain, and she was replaced by Knight who steered England to World Cup glory a year later. Having moved into coaching, Edwards has led Mumbai Indians to two titles in the Women's Premier League (WPL) in India, has won The Hundred with Southern Brave and claimed five domestic trophies with Southern Vipers. She has been appointed as Hampshire's head coach in the revamped county structure in England and Wales for the 2025 season. After the Ashes humiliation, Edwards told the BBC Stumped podcast that she was keen to help England rebuild and Greenway added that her former team-mate's coaching style would be the right method for the team's progression. "In women's cricket, we've had a number of different coaches who have had very different styles and I think in the past, at times it has been a little bit too instructional," said Greenway, who won more than 200 caps across formats in her England career."The ropes have been quite tight in terms of what players can and can't do and they've felt quite suppressed. So Jon was almost the opposite, he's been quite slack about what the players can do both on and off the pitch."I think Edwards has the best of both. She has that balance of making sure players are accountable on and off the field, but also bringing in some fun and understanding that players are not robots. She can recognise the moments when they need that breathing space." World Cup-winning spinner Alex Hartley also backed Edwards for the job and described her as a "brilliant, outstanding coach". "She'll really get hold of this team and she'll know how to make the standards better so they can compete under pressure," Hartley said."She gives you free rein to work out things for yourself but doesn't take any nonsense and that is what England need right now."The potential candidates are not as clear regarding England's next captain, though Nat Sciver-Brunt seems the most likely option having been Knight's deputy with many, including both Greenway and Hartley, naming off-spinner Charlie Dean as a contender."It has been one of the biggest downfalls over the past five or six years that there isn't a standout candidate to take over," Hartley added."They need a coach who can get the culture right, control the group and sort out the problems within the changing room, and then the captain can come in and have strong ideas. "I want a young person, a fresh person, someone like Charlie Dean - I think she'd be an exceptional leader who will play for England for a number of years."
