As triumphant homecomings by World Cup-winning teams go, it was pretty low key. There was no open-top bus parade, no Downing Street reception — just an air of understated satisfaction at a job well done as England’s women cricketers paraded the trophy at Lord’s cricket ground in London yesterday.
It was less than a decade ago that women were first admitted as members of the MCC at Lord’s and the ban on women in the pavilion was lifted. As victorious captain Charlotte Edwards posed with the trophy secured with victory over New Zealand on Sunday, she reflected on how far the sport had come and her hopes the win would act as a catalyst for further growth.
Edwards and her team will get the chance to show off in public next month in Taunton, southern England, where the women’s set up has its permanent base and the trophy will tour other county grounds as part of a campaign to further boost the women’s game.
PHOTO: AP
There were plenty of bleary eyes on show, but they were the result of an overnight flight back from Australia rather than any particularly raucous celebrations. ECB chairman Giles Clarke said that in contrast to their male Ashes winning counterparts four years ago, there were “no thousand-yard stares” the morning after.
Clarke, desperate for some good news after a winter dominated by criticism over links with Sir Allen Stanford and an under-performing men’s team, was also at the final and promised increased investment and profile for the women’s team.
The England team is the only one in the world that enjoys the benefits of semi-professional status, with several of their number — including captain Edwards — combining playing with coaching in schools under the ECB’s Chance to Shine scheme. The team has had a full-time head coach in Mark Lane since March last year.
Clare Connor, the ECB’s head of women’s cricket and a former England captain, said: “The opportunity this success has given us is huge and we have to have a clear plan about how we capitalize on that in terms of promotion.”
The team’s sponsorship deals are up at the end of this season and Clarke said it would seek separate sponsors for the women’s team that could invest in growing it.
Claire Taylor, who scored 324 runs in Australia and was named player of the tournament, said that it was important to make sure that clubs were ready for an influx of girls coming in at the bottom of the game.
UK Culture Secretary Andy Burnham, present at the Lord’s reception yesterday, said he hoped it would act as a “breakthrough moment” ahead of this summer’s ICC World Twenty20 in the UK, where the women’s semi-finals will take place alongside the men’s.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to