As the England men’s cricket team reflected on another defeat in Australia, their women’s colleagues battled for a vital and well-deserved victory over their Australian rivals.
Taking a step closer to retaining The Ashes, the England women forced the collapse of the Australian batting order thanks to clever bowling from Jenny Gunn, Anya Shrubsole and Yorkshire rhythm pitcher Katherine Brunt.
It was Brunt’s spell on the ball that eliminated the rather stubborn final wicket from Australian batsman, Sarah Elliot, to seal victory and move England closer to an overall win. With just two wins required from the next six tests, it looks like the England women are well prepared to venture where no Englishman has been this winter.
While team captain Charlotte Edwards is adamant that overconfidence won’t erode her team during the final Tests, it’s hard for some English fans not to get excited about the tantalizing thought of finally beating Australia.
But let’s challenge Captain Edwards and romanticize for a moment. If the women of England beat the Australians, it will look like the English game will have a new cast of heroines. As the saviors of English cricket, they could deliver the best sports PR coup the ECB could have asked for. The English and Welsh cricket board, as a sports governing body, faced extreme pressure as their male stars strained and collapsed while the women’s side continued to stand firm and flourish, appearing to be the saving grace of the ECB.
The defeat of the men now seems to be the cause of the women. In a supposedly unconscious show of support, Charlotte Edwards turned the men’s loss into the inspiration that is driving her team in their quest for victory.
While it could be argued that our female cricketers are taking the heat off the men, we cannot take away from them the great job they are doing not only for women’s cricket, but for women’s sport in general. The past two years have seen athletes like Jessica Ennis-Hill, Christine Ohuruogu and Nicola Adams celebrated for their individual success on the world stage and at home, but could 2014 see a surge in interest in our women’s sports teams?
This sporting year will see international competitions such as the Commonwealth Games and the Rugby Women’s World Cup, with the FIFA Women’s World Cup on offer in 2015. Illustrious competitions such as these will offer the best opportunity for our top female sports stars to capture the nation.
So, with a packed calendar of elite sporting events and a subsequent wave of PR support buoying British teams, could 2014 be the start of a new era for women’s team sports? Three weeks into the New Year and the England women’s cricket team already have the nation in a spin with their victorious performances against Australia.
