When the England vice-captain Heather Knight started playing cricket at the age of eight, she had little option but to play in male teams. There were few options for girls who wanted to play cricket where she lived. Like others in the England squad she had to overcome some resistance and stereotypes but her love for the game and her determination saw her progress through youth cricket and play for her county Devon before becoming captain of Berkshire and earning a call-up to the England squad in 2010.
Like many of her team-mates, Knight’s dream of being a cricketer has involved many sacrifices and, up until a year ago, making a living from cricket was not an option.
But the 24-year-old has developed into an integral part of the England team and the first match of the Ashes on Tuesday will be the 50th time she has represented England in a one-day international.
And being a West Country girl, born in Plymouth, it will hold even more significance. Having spent time with the Somerset academy and played cricket in Taunton, Knight is relishing the prospect of starting the series at the County Ground.
“I used to train at Taunton a lot when I was kid, it’s a ground that is very close to my heart and it is usually pretty nice to bat there, so I can’t wait to get out there,” says Knight, who believes that being full-time professionals has made a big difference to women’s cricket.
She previously had to juggle playing the sport with working and studying, while often having to drive miles each week to train and play. Things are very different now; the players have sponsored cars, all their hotel and travel arrangements are paid for and Knight believes that will help take the England team to the next level.
“Training together every week has made us a much closer unit,” she says. “We’ve got to know each other even better than we did before and having the time to dedicate to training means we are fitter than ever before and that should show itself in our performances.
“Being professional has meant that the balance in our lives is better; we’re not rushing around trying to balance cricket and jobs or study. This is our main focus and the downtime it allows us to have is really important. We have a really busy summer and a really busy year ahead of us but we’re able to get a much better balance now”.
Knight accepts that being professional also means there is much more scrutiny on the Ashes. “Both teams are fully professional now and it’s right that there are high expectations on us,” she says.
“But we are fairly used to the scrutiny now; plenty of our games have been on television before and we’ve played in front of good sized crowds.
“It’s been pretty good to feel the buzz around women’s sport. We need to use the platform of every ball being live on Sky this series to step up and show what we can do both to get more girls involved in playing and continue to increase the support”.
While Knight’s primary role in the team is with the bat, she has turned herself into something of an all-rounder, adding some more than handy off-spin bowling as another string to her bow.
“I’ve really enjoyed learning something new and spin bowling is something I didn’t really know anything about but it’s been really enjoyable learning and I’ve had a bit of success with it and now it’s about developing it more and having more tools in my armoury in terms of different types of delivery.”
It isn’t just with bat and ball that Knight is invaluable to England. She was appointed vice-captain a year ago and is perfect leadership material to take over should Charlotte Edwards sustain an injury during the series. The right-hander has even been tipped to take on the role in the longer term when Edwards retires. Knight has captaincy experience with Berkshire and is a well-rounded, focused woman, as well as a fantastic ambassador for the sport. She often talks passionately about her role in inspiring others to play cricket.
Knight is keen, though, to play down her leadership role: “It’s nice to be vice-captain but there is a lot of experience in the squad and I think everyone in this squad is a leader in their own right,” she said. As Australia may be about to find out.
