NICK FRIEND: The former England Women's head coach holds no bitterness over his departure, only happy memories of a spell that changed his worldview. He has never been an unemployed coach before, and so the question now is of what comes next
“Who’d have thought it?” Mark Robinson chuckles as he looks back on his four-year stint as head coach of England’s women’s team. “I’d been in a bloke’s world for 30 years. But I loved every minute of it. I loved it. I loved what I was doing. I had a ball.”
Robinson left his role midway through August as the dust settled on a humbling Ashes defeat – a series that began as a close-fought contest, but spiralled as Australia asserted their control.
Six months on, he is able to reflect on a spell that challenged him and changed him for the better, removing him from the comfort zone of county cricket, where he had spent almost a decade in charge at Sussex.
Life has been quiet since; the world of an unemployed coach is a different universe – one that requires a resilient mindset.
“Suddenly you’re not important – and that transition is quite hard,” Robinson admits. “For myself, it was a case of one minute being ultra-busy where my wife is moaning because I’m always on the phone to suddenly not being busy. People still contact you but not in the same way.”
The 53-year-old is keen to get back into the game, though he has listened to advice and will not rush his next move. He will know when it is time, he explains. He felt something when he spoke to Clare Connor four years ago that made him sure he was taking the right step. The women’s game has continued to grow at speed, and it is easily forgotten that Robinson took over a side in just its second year of central contracts.
He was seen as a coup and a statement – a veteran of the county circuit and a former applicant for the England men’s post. He had been set to become Sussex’s director of cricket before the chance arose.
Robinson had been to watch England with his daughter and it was her involvement in girls’ cricket that initially piqued his interest.
“The thought of going to big, global events – I hadn’t done it,” he recalls. “It was the one thing I hadn’t done. I’d been to the Champions League with Sussex and had done two England Lions tours. This was brand new.
“I had a lovely moment in the World T20 when I was sat in St Lucia. The ground was rocking – it was full. I was watching Nasser Hussain do a pre-match, pacing up and down, preparing to go on camera. I thought: ‘This is why I took the job – for big occasions.’”
Aside from a runners-up medal at that tournament in 2018, there was an Ashes draw in Australia and the zenith of World Cup glory in 2017. It is the source of plenty of satisfaction for Robinson, whose memories venture beyond a poor summer month last year. “We moved a long way,” he says. There is a great sense of fulfilment in his voice as he pores over times gone by. He is contented with the job he did and thrilled that he had the opportunity.
Mark Robinson led England to World Cup glory in 2017
“I can only look back with a lot of pride on what I’ve done and how the players are and how far they’ve come and the systems we’ve put in place and what’s underneath. The ultimate goal is in sorting the structure out, which I believe there are plans for.
“We have expanded the player group; we’ve put a lot of good things in place. I’d been banging on about leg-spinners for ages and now it’s great to see Sarah Glenn do so well.
“That does make you look back and think we got a lot right. Four bad weeks against Australia doesn’t tarnish what we did in four years. I learnt loads off the players – it’s made me a better coach and has made me see the world differently. It broadened me, expanded me, extended me.”
As Robinson speaks, there is no sign of any bitterness nor animosity, but plenty of gratitude and appreciation. He is honest in his assessment of the gap between England and Australia – “not as big as the scoreline suggested”, he insists, but born out of a wider talent pool and greater natural athletes, and he is at pains to stress the respect and esteem in which he holds those involved with Team England.
He is still in intermittent touch with players and staff – he speaks highly of Ali Maiden, once a young coach who became his assistant. “They’ve been brilliant,” he adds. “At different times, of course, because you have to give them space. But I’ve had a lot of support from them.”
On Heather Knight, his captain and lieutenant-in-chief, he is effusive in his praise. “She is as good a leader of people – man or woman – as I’ve worked with. She’s outstanding, she’s up there for me with anyone.
“To see where she was at the beginning and where she is now, I’m proud of her like she’s my daughter. That probably sounds patronising, but tactically and as a leader, she has proven herself to be very comfortable in her own skin and wanting to be the best version of herself.”
It was Knight – alongside Robinson – who had to front up through a difficult summer. “Australia caught us,” the former head coach acknowledges. “Having not got a foothold in the series after losing the first game that we should have won, it went from there.”
Only when Mady Villiers made her international debut in the final game of the series did England clinch an otherwise elusive victory. Yet, blooding youngsters during a month of scrutiny, though, was a challenge in itself.
“Like a parent, you’re trying to nurture them and see your kids come through,” Robinson reflects. “It’s not a fine art and it’s not an exact science. But it’s your duty of care.
“It’s a tough one – whether you throw players in. You don’t want to throw people in if they’re not confident or not playing well. We’ve never been shy of playing young players.
“We took Sophia Dunkley, Kirstie Gordon, Linsey Smith to a World Cup. But where they were form-wise, it would have been the wrong thing to play them against Australia. It would have been counterproductive as young players for their development.”
For now, however, Robinson is looking from the outside in. This is all a bit unusual for a man who, by his own admission, has never been in this position before. There has always been a job – whether in playing or coaching.
The question, then – and the crux of this conversation – is of what comes next. He has done short consultancy stints with Cricket Scotland, Peter Moores’ Nottinghamshire, Paul Nixon’s Leicestershire and England’s deaf team, as well as completing a mentoring course and trying his hand at some leadership work with a multinational company. He is assisting five Level Four coaches, including one woman “because I want to help”.
Robinson spent four years in charge of England's women's side
“I’ve done a couple of lectures at universities in front of 500 people,” he laughs. “That was great because it was massively uncomfortable. It’s easy talking to cricket fans, media or players, but that’s completely different.”
There has been interest in his services back in the cricketing sphere, but nothing yet that has excited him quite like his conversation with Connor. “I’m at my best when I’ve got a cause,” he explains. “Whatever the reason, the England deaf team haven’t played an international game for three years. They’ve got a World Cup this summer and I’m trying to fight their corner. That’s me at my best: when I’m fighting for something for somebody – to grow it, to improve it.”
The time away from the game has provided him with an opportunity to look at himself and to “reevaluate what I’m about”. It is a difficult, uncomfortable situation, but Robinson is an open book.
“I’m getting busier and busier in terms of the consultancy and the mentoring, but at the beginning you haven’t got any of that going,” he admits.
“This ability to go into a company and do some mentoring is great, but it’s getting all that going that’s tough. Even now, there’s a job out there and I’m thinking: ‘Shall I or shan’t I?’ Working out what is best for you is hard.
“If I’ve got a week with not much on, you’re getting itchy feet. You want to do something. You need a purpose. That might even just be going to visit friends or for a coffee. And then you get into a different type of routine.
“The hardest bit I found was having a purpose again. And then it becomes a case of resisting diving into a job because you feel you should be working.
“I’ve had some really good people advising me – there was one job where I had two different people say it wasn’t right for me.”
Alan Smith, the former Crystal Palace manager, has been one sounding board – an emotionally detached voice has proven useful. Andy Flower is another.
“All my best conversations were with people who’ve been in a similar situation because they ask the best questions.”
One of the greatest challenges, quite simply, is waiting. It does not come naturally to a figure for whom this – a constant state of engagement – has been life. Smith and Flower, among others, have prevented him from diving in. There have been offers from abroad as well – Robinson will not rule anything out.
He is open-minded – initially, he assumed he would move back into the men’s game, but his children are of university age and he cites his England Women’s experience as evidence of his willingness to explore the wider world. After all, he repeats, few would have thought he might find himself working alongside Knight.
Robinson is a natural head coach, though he has had discussions with directors of cricket about the make-up of their position, while he will not rule out a role as a skills coach either, having enjoyed his consultancy work.
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Robinson calls Heather Knight "as good a leader as I've worked with"
“I’m a pure coach,” he says. “I love coaching. I’ve loved being on the shop floor as a coach. But at some point, I want to go back and lead again.
“It was probably 2005 when I last coached without being in charge. You have a different relationship with the players. It has been fascinating going into places not as a head coach.
“It’s a lonely place, being a head coach, director of cricket, chief executive. It’s lonely. You’re often by yourself because you’re meant to have all the answers.
“There isn’t always the support – players get lots of support, but the coaches don’t. I think there’s definitely a role within the game for that – not only when they transition out, but also when they’re in the role to get support and feedback.”
In October, left-arm spinner Alex Hartley was told that her central contract would not be renewed for 2020, effectively calling a halt to her existence as a professional cricketer.
“You don’t really have a reason to get up in the morning,” she told The Cricketer at the time. “There have been days when I haven’t got out of bed, there have been days when I’ve been very upset.”
She namechecked Robinson, under whom she became a world champion in 2017, for his part in helping her to regain a sense of normality.
He pushed her to return to the gym, an activity she was deliberately avoiding as it offered her a reminder of her former routine.
Released by Yorkshire during his own playing days, it is a world that he understands. While he speaks of the loneliness that comes with the head coach’s territory, he also recognises the hardship of rejection.
“With Alex and Sarah Taylor, all I’ve tried to do – like I got supported – is support them and help them to be busy,” he explains. “I know what it feels like as a player; it does attack your self-worth if you’re not careful.
“You need a reason to get out of bad and move on, because I know that’s what I did. At the age I am, I’m more experienced and more resilient. I was able to get myself going and get myself busy.
“The space has been great. It’s just a case of when I go back in and what the right job is – being brave enough to sit and wait, but not to miss out on an opportunity as well.
“That’s the balancing act you need. You hope you make the right decision. The temptation is to take the things that have come up and say yes. Well actually, it would have been wrong for them and wrong for me.”
Talking in the middle of winter, of course, presents its own dilemmas: jobs in the county game are hardly becoming available. While teams are dormant, they are neither winning nor losing. Movement is minimal and patience is the name of the game.
“We’ve got some building work going on at home, which has been driving me mad because I normally miss all that carnage,” he chuckles. “I think the wife is probably ready for me to get a job, definitely.”
It means, of course, that he will be housebound as the T20 World Cup gets underway in Australia. Will he watch England? “I want them to win and I want them to well,” he answers. “I care a lot about the girls; they are outstanding human beings.”
He won’t be getting up for a 2am start, he confesses, but only out of habit. “It’s not raw to watch,” he says. Given the chance, he will be cheering on his former charges. It is the nature of the beast of the women’s game in England that Lisa Keightley’s squad is, for the most part, his squad – a group that grew in experience under Robinson, especially after Charlotte Edwards' international retirement in 2016.
“We had a fantastic support staff – you’re just playing your part,” he stresses. “It will always be the little things that you’re prouder of. Tammy Beaumont’s development being an obvious one – watching her from the beginning to now.
“Legacies are interesting. I always think of them as a selfish thing. I don’t want a legacy. When you’re in the job, you just do the best you can for the team and for the people.”
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