Heather Knight has reiterated that she is still 'very much committed' to playing international cricket despite her transition into a non-playing role during The Hundred, which will see her link up with former England head coach Jon Lewis.
The former England Women captain told Wisden Women's Cricket Weekly podcast that her new role as General Manager of London Spirit Women does not mean she's calling time on her playing career. Instead, she says, it is an opportunity to begin to look at the next chapter. Knight said that she was first approached about the role during last year's competition, which she missed through injury, having lifted the trophy as captain of the side in 2024.
"Mo [Bobat – London Spirit Director of Cricket] approached me during the Hundred last year when I wasn't actually playing, I was injured with a hamstring injury, and asked if I would be interested," said Knight. "It was a little bit of a tricky choice to choose between playing in The Hundred and taking on this new opportunity. But I'm still very much committed to playing for England, playing for Somerset, I haven't retired or anything like that. It is a little bit different, but I jumped at the opportunity.
"I've missed two of the last four Hundreds through injury. I'm more towards the back-end of my career than the start, and being injured a lot last year gave me a lot of time to think about what might be next and what I might want to do, and that's when this opportunity came up. It felt like something that I really wanted to do, that opportunity to start to turn my head towards what's next when I do finish playing."
Knight will reunite with former England head coach Jon Lewis in her new role, after Lewis was named head coach of London Spirit Women. Both Knight and Lewis lost their leadership roles with England Women at the beginning of last year, after England capitulated to a 16-0 Ashes series-defeat. That brought to an end nine years of Knight's leadership of the side, during which she won the 50-over World Cup in 2017.
"I'm delighted to be working with him [Lewis] again," Knight said. "We formed a really tight relationship, a really trusting, supportive relationship, but also a really good relationship where you can challenge each other and be really honest.
"It's no secret the Ashes didn't finish how we wanted it to, but I think we've all learned quite a lot from that situation. Even before Jon got the job, we stayed in touch and things like that... I think he's a brilliant coach and hopefully he's going to be very good for us here at Spirit."
After losing the England captaincy, Knight had to race to be fit again as a player for last year's 50-over World Cup after picking up a hamstring injury early in the summer. She finished the tournament as England's leading run-scorer, having hit a century in a tight match against India.
"It was slightly strange at the start," Knight says about playing as a non-captain. "Then a week later, I was injured, so that was quite a strange thing. I had that quite serious hamstring injury 10 days after meeting back up with the squad for that [West Indies] series. That shifted my focus quite a lot; that was the thing that I had to focus on. In a weird way, it probably allowed me to move on a little bit faster because I was in a dog-fight to be ready for that World Cup and be fit to go to India.
"I've enjoyed it. It's something that's obviously different. When you've done something for nine years, it takes a bit of getting used to, but I've really enjoyed it. It's that period of your career where you can enjoy it, have a little bit more time on your hands, a little bit less responsibility, a little bit more time to help players around you, and you have a slightly different relationship when you're not captain. People are a bit more open with you, and you're a bit more open with them, which is a nice place to be, because you're not involved in selection."
Knight finished a stint with Sydney Thunder in the WBBL last month, and will next play for Somerset when the domestic season gets underway. England will have winter training camps in the coming months, but they are in the middle of a six-month gap in their calendar between the World Cup and the start of the international season. The summer will feature the T20 World Cup at home in June and July, before Knight links back up at Lord's in August for her role with London Spirit.
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