Charlotte Edwards volunteers for Ashes review with sole intention to improve the direction of England women’s cricket.
Charlotte Edwards offers ECB help with Ashes whitewash review
When the ECB is reviewing England’s crushing defeat by Australia in the Women’s Ashes, Charlotte Edwards has volunteered to assist.
In an interview this week, Edwards, the former England captain who is now a celebrated coach, stated that she felt more prepared than she did two and a half years ago, right before Jon Lewis took over as head coach, but she has not ruled out taking over if the position becomes available following the review. She was even more adamant about supporting the ECB’s investigation, though.
“I’m certainly more prepared because of some of the experiences I’ve had in the last few years,” Edwards told the BBC’s Stumped podcast. “I just want to help at the moment because I feel like this review’s taking place and I think they’ve got to ask people within the game what they think. I’ve got great experience across county level, working in the WBBL, that hopefully someone will pick up the phone and ask what we need to do to get better.
“That’s all I care about at the moment. I don’t care who coaches the team, who captains the team. I just want English cricket to get back to where it should be. And I think we’ve got to use people who know what’s going on to help and I feel I’m in a position to help and hopefully support the ECB in that process.”
Given her exceptional success both domestically and in the world’s top franchise leagues, Edwards would be a strong contender to take over as head coach of England Women should the position become available.
After expressing interest in the England position in September 2022, Edwards withdrew her application a few weeks later, stating that she was content with her developing franchise coaching career with Southern Vipers in the domestic women’s league, which included a T20 competition named after her, and Southern Brave in the Women’s Hundred and WBBL team Sydney Sixers.
Edwards said she watched much of the Women’s Ashes, where England were thumped by more than 50 runs in three white-ball matches and by an innings in the Test, with a sense of “real disappointment”.
“Hopefully this will be a moment, a line-in-the-sand moment, for the team and for the ECB to have a look at where we’re going with the women’s game because there’s a lot of good things happening and I think that’s what makes it sad for someone who’s involved in the system,” Edwards said. “There’s a lot of good things happening within the counties and the regional structure and it hasn’t necessarily been portrayed with the England team, so that’s a worry, I guess, and something that needs to be looked at.”