Women’s Ashes thumping the last straw which demanded change at the top
Valkerie Baynes21-Mar-2025As an ECB-employed index finger hovered over the “send” button on Jon Lewis’s sacking announcement, a number of prominent cricket journalists were departing The Oval after Surrey’s pre-season media day.The cynical among us might roll our eyes at the timing which either buries a negative story or steals attention from England’s largest cricket club, depending on how you look at it.But whether you view Lewis’s departure after just over two years as England Women’s head coach as good or bad news, it does – as these things often do – raise plenty more questions.The second line of the ECB’s announcement after the news itself celebrated Lewis’s record of 52 wins from 73 matches at the helm and the fact that England are ranked second behind Australia in T20Is and ODIs.World No.2 they may be but it was the gulf between them and Australia that proved Lewis’s undoing after a disastrous Women’s Ashes defeat.He went on that tour of Australia off the back of a disappointing group-stage exit at the T20 World Cup – a successful tour of South Africa in between notwithstanding.Related
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Clare Connor, ECB Managing Director, England Women, and Deputy Chief Executive Officer, was quoted celebrating “the team’s consistent success in bilateral cricket” which “included a remarkable eight consecutive ODI series wins for which he should take real credit”.But England also suffered their first series defeat to Sri Lanka in the home T20s during his tenure in 2023, exposing a weakness batting against spin which Lewis tried to address with training camps in India and the Middle East in the lead up to last year’s T20 World Cup, where a rash of fielding errors saw them knocked out by West Indies.Connor did admit “the recent ICC Women’s T20 World Cup and Women’s Ashes in Australia have been disappointing” but upon announcing that Lewis had left his position – with no mention of stepping down or mutual agreement as is often the case when that is the case – what else could she say publicly to avoid a PR disaster and hurting a man whose intentions were good?One can only hope that the ongoing review into England Women’s cricket, which Connor announced immediately after an innings defeat in the Ashes Test which sealed the 16-0 scoreline in Australia’s favour, is more introspective about what went wrong rather than clutching onto things that went right.Players have given input to the review, as confirmed by Kate Cross at a Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) event earlier this month and Sophia Dunkley at Surrey’s media day on Friday, with the latter pointing out that it was “above my pay grade” to guess at the outcome.”We all want to be part of a successful England team, so we’re going to be doing our utmost to try and make that happen,” Dunkley told reporters.Heather Knight addresses the crowd at the end of England’s Ashes campaign•Getty ImagesSurrey have a big part to play in the future of the England Women’s team, as do their counterparts in the new domestic structure for 2025 whereby the women’s teams will be aligned with counties and therefore more closely to the men’s teams at those counties rather than representing regions as they have done for the past five years.Among the many things the Ashes defeat exposed was a lack of depth in the England set-up with a firm core of players being selected and very few putting pressure on them from outside.Before he became head coach, Lewis had been the ECB’s elite pace bowling coach since 2021, working alongside the England Men’s Test and white-ball teams. That stretch included the men’s own Ashes 4-0 Ashes drubbing but also encompassed a season of Bazball and Lewis attempted to import that mindset to the women’s side without the same depth of players to call upon.Over the past 18 months, attempts to establish teenage quick Mahika Gaur in the side have been interrupted by school commitments and injury. Her selection has obvious parallels with England Men giving off-spinner Shoaib Bashir a platform to become an integral part of their attack seemingly from nowhere. But, amid persistent gender pay disparity, the need for an education to fall back on illustrates the limitations of trying to transfer the men’s “high-ceiling player” selection policy.The introduction of experienced allrounder Paige Scholfield – who scored a £65,000 pay day with Oval Invincibles in the recent Women’s Hundred draft – ended abruptly when she was injured on the December tour of South Africa before the series began. Ryana MacDonald-Gay, the 21-year-old seamer, held her place between England’s tour of Ireland last September to the Ashes Test but she is five matches into an infantile international career.All three are part of the England A series about to get underway in Australia in which England will attempt to start bridging the gap to their fiercest rivals longer term.Meanwhile, the senior Australia side have unearthed 21-year-old opener Georgia Voll to step seamlessly into the void left by injured captain Alyssa Healy.Lewis’s clumsy attempt to explain the chasm between the teams opened him up to criticism. His suggestion that Australia’s outdoors culture fostered the development of natural athletes overshadowed another improbable storyline – a furphy to use Australian slang – when he said: “On Sunday morning, pretty much every Australian in the eastern suburbs was in the water. There’s about a million kids down there, and they were doing surf lifesaving, or playing touch rugby. For me, that’s a cultural difference. I definitely think Australia have an advantage in terms of athleticism, and also our talent pool at the moment is small, so it’s important for us to grow the game.”The talent pool line doesn’t hold water – pardon the pun. With a population more than double that of Australia, England cricket should be able to catch more, not less of the potential out there.Sure, they’re not all playing cricket – yet – but Lewis’s parting words, beyond his telling “unfortunately I won’t be able to finish this incredibly challenging but enjoyable job of developing this young team…” confirmed a steadfast belief in his own approach, which at its heart was about growing the game.”I am proud that we have seen unprecedented bumper crowds in 2023 and 2024 and I am determined to continue to help drive women’s cricket forward in whatever comes next for me,” he said.The “bumper crowds” thing harks back to what became a hackneyed phrase during Lewis’s tenure – their desire to “inspire and entertain” the next generation of cricketers, a kind of Bazball if you will. That the “how” appeared to take precedence over the on-field results, at times, ensured that the phrase came back to bite him. Praising a manner of defeat can only work so many times if the defeats pile up in the biggest games.Charlotte Edwards has enjoyed great success on the global franchise circuit•Mumbai IndiansCross toured Australia but didn’t play as she battled a back injury. She gave one of the first player interviews following the ill-fated 2025 Ashes at the launch of the PCA’s Women’s Impact Report, highlighting advances made in the game since 2020. There, she acknowledged that the manner of England’s defeat would have done little to attract new players and fans.”Ultimately as players, we still want to try and get young girls interested in the game and us losing quite drastically isn’t going to do that,” she said. “So we’re going to have to have a real look at how we want to portray ourselves as a team moving forward and try and get a bit of love back from our fans because we, or certainly I, felt that we kind of lost a lot of that from our Ashes series, so hopefully we can move in the right direction now.”So what is the way forward?We are yet to hear whether Heather Knight will stay on as captain or whether any sweeping selection changes will be made. In fairness to Knight, she was one of England’s best performers of the Ashes as the second-highest run-scorer overall with 229 at an average of 32.71. Nat Sciver-Brunt followed with 227 at 28.37, but their efforts paled in comparison to Beth Mooney’s 409 at 68.16. A lack of an obvious successor as England captain also makes her position look more tenable.Connor said the ECB would look to appoint Lewis’s successor shortly as England prepares to host West Indies and India ahead of the 50-over World Cup followed by a home T20 World Cup next year.Charlotte Edwards stands out as a potential candidate, the former England captain having forged a highly successful coaching career in women’s franchise leagues globally and domestic women’s cricket.Before taking Mumbai Indians to their second WPL title in three years last weekend, Edwards had led Southern Vipers to five titles, including two Charlotte Edwards Cup victories, and Southern Brave to three Women’s Hundred finals, winning the 2023 edition.As women’s cricket in England embarks on its next move, it makes sense that the woman who has been an integral part of the game’s initial move to full professionalisation since 2020 oversees this next phase from the top.