Four England captains explain why women"s team sport is thriving

With England’s netball side tipped as a hot medal prospect at the Commonwealth Games, England’s rugby team hoping to go one better than runner-up as they embark on their World Cup campaign in August, and the FA Women’s Super League returning from a mid-season break to the most competitive season of domestic women’s football yet, women’s team sport is thriving. Meanwhile one of the success stories of 2014, the Ashes winning England cricket team, who are now professionals, begin a Test series against India in August. Here, four England captains – Charlotte Edwards (cricket), Steph Houghton (football), Katy McLean (rugby union) and Pamela Cookey (netball) – compare notes.

How has your sport changed in the last five years?

Charlotte Edwards The last five years have been transformational for cricket, particularly with the announcement in February that we would be going professional. It’s something I never thought I’d see in my career. Everyone thought I was banging the drum behind the scenes, but I was surprised myself, I couldn’t believe it when I heard.

Katy McLean The coverage. I love that my kids at school now say: “I saw you on TV. Do you know Emily Scarratt? Do you know Maggie [Alphonsi]?” Two years ago we had one Twickenham game. Now we’re playing games at Twickenham and BBC and Sky are covering it. The World Cup in 2010 gave us massive coverage being in England. The World Cup in France is probably the next step that we need to get us into this professional era.

Pamela Cookey Netball has come on leaps and bounds with all the Sky and BBC 5 Live coverage. People are seeing us so they want to play netball more. I can walk down the street now and people will say: “I saw you on TV last Saturday!”

Steph Houghton Even at the Euros, where England had a bad tournament, it was really evident how the media coverage pushed the game on further. Central contracts have allowed most of the England girls to train full-time and clubs are putting more money into the game. At Manchester City I love that I can get up in the morning and go training twice a day. It’s a natural thing and it’s where other sports have to aim now. I know how hard it is to get up at stupid o’clock in the morning to fit in training sessions around work. Football at this moment in time is in a really good place.

The FA recently announced an extension of mixed football up to the age of 16 (previously 13). What is your view on mixed gender sport?

SH The FA’s decision is brilliant. If we want to make women’s football the best it can possibly be that’s the route we have to go down. At Manchester City we have the chance to train with the under-18 boys and we really enjoy that. They’re quicker and more physical than us, but in terms of technical ability we can match them.

CE I wouldn’t be playing for England if I hadn’t played boys’ cricket. Every time I played I had to prove myself. Sometimes the parents didn’t want me to play, other times the boys would be going: “What’s she doing here?” It was terrible. But now I don’t care what anyone says about my sport, it’s water off a duck’s back. There are no restrictions on gender in cricket, and I encourage girls to play cricket as long as possible with the lads, but there does come a time where it becomes a very different game – the men bowl quicker, it’s a front foot back foot game. And that’s why I don’t play as much now, I’ve got to hone my skills to the women’s game. I’m in my 30s so I wouldn’t pursue the men’s game, but for someone like Sarah [Taylor] there’s no reason why she shouldn’t. She’s good enough.

KM Playing with boys I learned a huge amount. At seven or eight years old I’d get dads on the sideline saying: “Get the girl, get the girl!” Thankfully the boys I played with were utterly protective of me. They never saw me as a girl. Just a team-mate. And that’s how it should be.

PC Netball is predominantly seen as a female sport but in primary schools now boys can play netball with girls – it’s called High 5 and it’s catching on. There’s also mixed netball tournaments happening all over the country. I think it’s nice to be able to have boys and girls doing sport together. I think it gives boys an appreciation of the sport too. If boys are a part of it they see how difficult it is, it’s not a girly sport.

Why are there so few female coaches? And does it matter?

KM I think we have a responsibility as players to go back into the game and coach. Too often women in sport stop playing and become spectators. We should be pushing rugby players into coaching. I’ve been coached by some fantastic male and female coaches. Your sex shouldn’t make a difference.

CE Things are improving in cricket, now that we have paid coaching positions it is easier to encourage ex-players to go on coaching courses. Our under-15 and under‑19 teams are run by women, as is our academy. I think it’s important that women stay in the game because we’ve got a lot to offer, but I don’t think they did in the past because there weren’t jobs to go to. Personally, I’ve always aspired to coach.

PC The majority of our coaches are women. B

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ut outside the Super League our coaches are volunteers because we don’t have the funding. If we were able to professionalise it we might see better, more qualified coaches, raising the standard of netball.

SH Like everyone says, it’s about getting the right person for the job. [But] there’s not enough female coaches and the FA are trying to work on that [in the Women’s Super League 1 there is only Chelsea’s Emma Hayes]. They’re encouraging female players to get their coaching badges and learn while you’re playing, and I think that can only be a good thing.

What next for your sport?

CE There’s 18 players funded with England. Our real challenge now is to sort our grassroots game out. I think tThat’s where football is making progress, with their league. We’ve gone top heavy probably. We’re a long way off seeing all top female cricketers turn pro. But hopefully in my lifetime. I like the way netball have marketed their game. That campaign, BackToNetball, is fantastic. We need something like that for cricket, maybe influencing girls to play Twenty20.

SH With the World Cup next year they’re looking at giving more players central contracts to help the national side. And with more clubs going professional in the league it’s heading in the right direction. I’d love to see every FAWSL club fully professional.

PC In netball our funding is just with the England players so our challenge is to improve the grassroots game, to help widen our pool of players. Going professional would help. I’ve recently gone down to four days a week at work but I still I get up at 5am to train, go to work and then back to training again. It’s hard.

KM I think rugby is in a very different place, listening to the others. We’re still amateurs, I teach full-time, and then we train, so I appreciate the cycle that Pamela talks about. Obviously we’d all love to be professional, it would make our lives so much easier. But it’s got to be right for the sport. Would I say our leagues are good enough to make all clubs professional? Right now, no. It’s a big challenge.

Women’s Sport Trust – levelling the playing field for women’s sport. Womenssporttrust.com/BeAGameChanger

Article source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/article-2693497/Mike-Tindall-hero-Englands-2003-World-Cup-winning-team-retires-rugby.html

Four England captains explain why women"s team sport is thriving