Stand-offs over post-Test beers may have made headlines in the men’s Ashes, but Nat Sciver is hoping for no such problems when England and Australia’s women begin battle on Tuesday.
“Of course we will [offer them a drink],” says the Surrey all-rounder, who is preparing to play in her second series between the old rivals. “I don’t know if they will join us – one year they did and one year they didn’t – but the relationship between the teams is really good and a lot of their team have been very accepting to our players when they have gone over to play in Australia.”
Any resistance on the Australians’ part might be attributable to the fact that they have not won a series in England since 2001 and were also defeated on their own soil last year. The pendulum has swung firmly towards England, who have won five of the last six Ashes battles over the past decade, and Sciver is keen for them to maintain their momentum.
“We’re excited and ready to go,” she says. “We’ve seen the kind of success that other women’s sports, and particularly the football team, have had recently, so hopefully it will be our turn to show people what we can do.
“The way the country got behind the footballers was brilliant and we’d love to inspire the same kind of support and feeling. With the entire Ashes being broadcast on Sky for the first time, it will be a lot easier for people to see what we can do.”
Sciver, who turns 23 in August and recently finished studying for a degree in sports and exercise sciences at Loughborough University, was one of 18 players to sign England and Wales Cricket Board central contracts last year. But her road to cricketing glory has been an unusual one. She was born in Japan, due to her mother’s employment in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and later lived with her family in Warsaw – where she learned from the sporting school of hard knocks.
“I was 12 or 13 and joined a team in the local women’s football league,” she says. “Everyone else was 20, 25, all these tall, strong Polish women, and I was just this tiny little thing who couldn’t speak the language. It was interesting, that’s for sure, but at the time I thought I did all right and it probably helped me as a person, to be honest.
“It’s funny how things have turned out. I always knew I wanted to play a sport for England but didn’t know what it was going to be. I played football for about nine years in total, but when we moved back to England in my teens I didn’t get on with my team as much as I’d have liked and that was around the time cricket became a big thing for me. My cricket team welcomed me and there was a real family feel, a team atmosphere, that I really enjoyed.”
Women’s cricket is on an upwards trajectory regardless of any wave created by football’s success. Professionalism was one step, another is the ECB’s creation of a new women’s super league that will begin next year. With a women’s Big Bash league to take place in Australia from December, there is a feeling this is a big 12 months for the sport.
“I’d love to be a part of the Big Bash, whether this year or next,” says Sciver. “And I’m definitely looking to be involved in next year’s league here. Surrey are putting a bid in for a team and Loughborough may be too. It will be really exciting for the sport and should inspire players to keep playing, too, even if they aren’t in academies or the ECB pathway. There is a lot of positivity around and winning the Ashes would add to it. Hopefully we can put on a show with the Australians this summer and give people something to enjoy.”
