Heather Knight puts her sanction behind her to focus on T20 WC as England gear up to face Bangladesh first-up.
Heather Knight, England’s captain, says that the challenge of leading her team into the Women’s T20 World Cup has her full focus.
She maintains that “the line has already been drawn” about the disciplinary action she faces because of a historical “blackface” photo that just surfaced on social media.
Knight, 33, received a reprimand and a suspended £1000 punishment from the Cricket Discipline Commission last week after a compromising fancy-dress photo from a 2012 party that she was in appeared on Facebook. At the time, Knight was 21. The Cricket Regulator acknowledged that Knight’s actions had “no racist intent,” but Knight issued a statement apologising and saying she had “long regretted it.”
Speaking just before England’s opening match of the T20 World Cup against Bangladesh in Sharjah on Saturday, Knight now focused entirely on the task at hand for her team, which is to improve on their semi-final showing from the previous competition in South Africa two years ago and win their first ICC global title since 2017.
“It was obviously something that has been ongoing the last couple of months and it is something, as far as I am concerned, that has been addressed, and something that was a long time ago, so it hasn’t been in my mind at all,” Knight said.
“The line has already been drawn, in my opinion, so I am really excited, obviously, for what is to come. We have got super supportive group, there is no doubt about that, so yeah, I’m pretty happy to get cracking with the cricket.”