Dani Gibson is at the back end of what’s been a remarkable summer. However, with her career rapidly ascending to the global elite, at age 25, she’s already thinking about what comes next.
Having returned from a back injury to play a leading role in England’s T20 World Cup campaign, she has led SunRisers Leeds to The Hundred Eliminator in her first foray into professional captaincy. However, with her career rapidly ascending to the global elite, at age 25, she’s already thinking about what comes next.
Gibson has had a bumpy start to her international career. Having come into the England side under Jon Lewis in the 2023 Ashes, she epitomised his philosophy of ‘inspire and entertain’ as a powerful lower-order batter and impact bowler. She’s also widely regarded as one of the best fielders in the country. However, having played consistently in 2024, she picked up a second stress fracture in her back ahead of the summer which kept her out of bowling for over a year.
It was on that injury lay-off that she started to think about life after cricket.
“I'm well aware that with all my injuries, I need something post-cricket for if anything were to happen,” Gibson tells Wisden Women’s Cricket Weekly podcast. “You get a lot of free time as well, when you are injured. [When I had] my stress fracture, I signed up to do a strength and conditioning course to coach.”
Alongside building her coaching foundations, Gibson has built her social media presence with the help of a friend who runs a brand-strategy business for athletes. She centres her social media image on lifestyle and fitness content, which ranges from posting reels detailing days in her life, gym sessions, fashion and inspirational content. More recently, she's started a podcast with fellow England star Lauren Filer, and is currently giving away free workout plans to her 40,000 Instagram followers, designed specifically for women.
“I'm trying to build a brand alongside my cricket right now,” she says. “Being able to coach women who want to get into moving their body. That can progress that down the years and there's a plan put in place.
“I love social media. I like posting. I like showing young girls what they could do if they want to be a professional cricketer. I like travelling and the things we get up to, showing training. It's just something that I really enjoy. And then also, it's great to be able to build a profile for potential after-cricket.”
Gibson’s cricket career has exploded over the last six months. She was bought by SunRisers Leeds for £190,000 in The Hundred auction, and followed that up with several impactful performances in the T20 World Cup. Before May this year, she hadn’t played for England for 18 months, and had not made her ODI debut. Yet, such was her reputation, as well as the boost from a couple of powerful innings at the start of the season, she went into the T20 World Cup billed as one of England’s most important assets. She backed that up with an 11-ball 30* as England stumbled in their chase against Scotland, as well as taking two crucial wickets in their final group game against New Zealand.
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Having already played in the WPL, and with a contract in the WBBL, as women’s franchise salaries increase year-on-year, Gibson’s cricket income could rapidly spiral above its already significant level. However, her social media presence and commitment to ensuring she’ll have income should she suffer another significant injury are as much about the present as they are the future.
“I think it's also really important to have passions outside of your job,” says Gibson. “If you're just completely on your job 24-7 then I'd worry that I'd start to resent it and not enjoy it. Whereas if you've got other passions that you can tap into when you get time off, or even during it just to switch off, I think it's so important because otherwise your brain's just going to be fried from cricket all the time. I feel like I'd just end up resenting it [cricket] and not maybe being able to perform as well because I'm not that interested in it.
“I know what the world's like, and I know that you need things alongside [cricket] because I've got no degree or anything like that. I know that I'll need something to help me post-cricket, or if like I said, an injury was to happen then I need something because I don't know how I would cope if I had to build from the beginning. [That’s why] I'm building now while I'm still enjoying cricket, then it's easier later in life.”
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