Eight years on from their watershed World Cup win at Lord’s, the remnants of England’s 2017 trailblazers are gearing up for a greater test of their legacies, writes Katya Witney.
The best part of a decade has passed since England won the World Cup. That day in 2017 is synonymous with Anya Shrubsole, arms outstretched and eyes to the sky in front of a packed house at Lord’s, sold out for a women's game for the first time. As with similar landmark sporting moments – think the 2005 Ashes, 2003 men’s rugby World Cup or even the 2012 Olympics – promises were made, some of them were kept, and some were not.
The transformational power of that tournament is undeniable. Unprecedented numbers watched around the world, prompting calls for franchise leagues as the powers that be realised the future value of the product they had. Domestic contracts in England were announced two years later, although it would wait until The Hundred was born for change to accelerate.
Perhaps that moment came slightly too early to reach the full potential of what could be achieved. When the Lionesses won in front of a sold out Wembley in 2022, there was already enough infrastructure in place to ensure that achievement was not an isolated one. While the Lionesses reached a World Cup final the following year and defended their Euros title in Switzerland earlier this year, their cricketing counterparts’ performance stagnated after 2017, and then slipped into a stubborn decline.
England have reached two ICC tournament finals since 2017. On both occasions they were obliterated by Australia at the peak of their dominance. Slowly but surely, that status of being Australia’s punching bag as the second-best team in the world was lost. It was India who put England out of the Commonwealth Games in 2022, South Africa who eliminated them in the T20 World Cup six months later, and the West Indies who dumped them out in the UAE last year. Since that 2017 final, they’ve lost 10 of the 16 ODIs they’ve played against India, and the Ashes trophy is a distant memory.
Coming into the tournament this time, there have been frank but optimistic assessments from those within the camp of where the side are at. Their captain, Nat Sciver-Brunt, described them as “outsiders”, while “dark horses” was Charlie Dean’s chosen descriptor. Six months into a new coach’s tenure after hitting rock bottom over the winter, and facing a subcontinental tournament likely to further expose their batting vulnerabilities against spin, being frontrunners at this World Cup was always a long shot. The T20 World Cup on home soil next year is a more realistic target for silverware. Nevertheless, wins against Australia and India in the warm-ups reaffirmed that semi-final qualification should be the benchmark for the side to hit.
Deeper success, however, will be found in how the senior members of their side sign off from World Cup cricket. Four of England’s number – Heather Knight, Tammy Beaumont, Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Sciver-Brunt – remain from the 2017 cohort. All have since gone on to hit significant professional milestones: Knight during her nine years as captain, Sciver-Brunt as an all-time great, and Beaumont and Wyatt-Hodge as trailblazing batters of their era. But World Cups are where true legacies are judged, not just in silverware, but by performing in crunch moments on the biggest stage the game has to offer.
That’s why, after suffering a hamstring injury this summer, Knight turned down surgery which would make her recovery period longer, opting instead to sit in a hyperbaric chamber three times a week in a race to be fit for the tournament. Knight’s last memory of World Cup cricket is currently standing on the outfield watching Australia lift another trophy, having herself averaged less than 30 during the tournament. In 24 World Cup innings, Knight has passed 50 four times, once reaching a century against Pakistan in 2017. Now freed up from the captaincy, she has one last shot at putting that record right.
Sciver-Brunt’s World Cup record is almost exactly opposite to Knight’s. Four centuries, key knocks in important matches and an exceptional average of 57.50 mark her out as arguably England’s greatest-ever World Cup performer. However, playing her first tournament as captain, the stakes for her are different. It was Sciver-Brunt who was in charge on the pitch when England unravelled last year against West Indies, and it is she who will be fielding questions in the hot seat should similar happen in India. This may well be her only chance to captain England at a 50-over World Cup, and if they can come out as a side on the up rather than still trying to reverse the slide, she will have a solid basis to build her legacy as a leader.
If 2017 was about collective advancement and building the future, 2025 is personal. The game has changed, and the focus now has to be on silverware and centuries. For those who straddle both eras, this World Cup is a last chance to bring their legacies into the here and now.
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