NICK FRIEND: Mady Villiers and Sarah Glenn are separated in age by 366 days, with Sophie Ecclestone sandwiched in between. None of the trio were born when Charlotte Edwards made her Test debut. Now, united by a special bond, they represent the future
Much has changed since Australia retained the Ashes last July, easing to victory in a four-week spell that highlighted a gulf between the sides of Heather Knight and Meg Lanning.
It signalled the end of Mark Robinson’s time in charge, the climax of a relationship that had garnered World Cup glory in 2017 and much more. In the subsequent months, Sarah Taylor, Jenny Gunn and Laura Marsh called time on their own international careers – 664 caps, 10,823 runs and 457 wickets between them, all gone.
England flew to Malaysia in the final weeks of the year with Ali Maiden in interim charge, before beginning 2020 in the hands of Lisa Keightley. For their T20 World Cup efforts, they were only afforded a semi-final exit wrapped up in rain-soaked controversy.
Through that time, however, a new triumvirate has blossomed.
Mady Villiers, Sophie Ecclestone and Sarah Glenn have only played three games together thus far. Yet, their collective presence has offered a glimpse into a fascinating future.
Ecclestone, four years into her time on the global stage, is already ranked as the world’s premier T20I bowler; Glenn is the leg-spinner – a holy grail for which Robinson openly pined through much of his tenure; Villiers is the natural heir to the off-spin of Marsh, England’s most successful spinner of all time.
Just 366 days separate the births of Villiers – August 26, 1998 – and Glenn – August 27, 1999. Ecclestone is sandwiched in between. They have already formed a close bond, beginning on the field and extending off it, founded on a shared youth as well as absorbing, vivacious characters.
“It’s like being back at school in a sense,” Villiers tells The Cricketer. “We’re all so similar in age and we’re three completely different personalities but we just click. We get on so well.
“It’s weird; I couldn’t imagine playing in a side where one of them isn’t there now. Even though we’ve only played a handful of games together, we spend so much time with each other. To think of not playing in a side with them is just strange.”
Villiers and Ecclestone had worked together for a short time at under-16 level, but rarely since. Ecclestone had long-since graduated to become a mainstay of Robinson’s side by the time Villiers found herself in the academy. She recalls net-bowling at the national side on one occasion at Chelmsford, well before she had broken through: “Sophie came over and started speaking to me and I was quite nervous, even though I’d known her before,” Villiers laughs. “Now we just get on like a house on fire.”
Glenn and Villiers have played against each other at county level, but their friendship has only properly developed in recent months.
“I didn’t really know Glenny,” she adds. “But she’d get on with anyone and she could have a conversation about anything with anyone. You spend five minutes with her and you’d feel like you know her inside out. She’s a good laugh.”
Ecclestone explains: “It’s nice to have people my age in the team; having songs on the playlist that you don’t get moaned at for was the main one! We get on so well and we’re really close. I think we’re competitive in terms of spots in the team, but we get on so well and help each other out.”
It is far from a closed shop. There are others too: Linsey Smith has played nine T20Is; Alex Hartley remains a World Cup winner and was central contracted until October 2019; Kirstie Gordon played in the solitary Ashes Test in 2019 and is just 22, a year older than Sophia Dunkley, who is still highly regarded. But these three, for the moment, have set a new bar. And with Nat Sciver increasingly seen as a frontline seam-bowling option under the new regime, it leaves the door ajar to field the trio simultaneously. It won’t always be appropriate, but the option is there.
Villiers’ international debut came at Bristol in England’s final game of last summer, a consolatory success against Australia played out under floodlights in front of a sell-out crowd. For Glenn, her bow came in opposite surroundings: against Pakistan in Kuala Lumpur. Ecclestone’s, too, came at Bristol, albeit four years earlier, also against Pakistan.
“It was weird actually,” Villiers remembers. “Sophie told me that she’d got her first wicket with a full toss on her debut at Bristol. She was like: ‘Imagine if you do as well.’” As fate would have it, Alyssa Healy slapped a full toss – Villiers’ eighth delivery as an England cricketer – straight to Ecclestone at long-off: a dismissal written in the stars. She had already dropped a chance off her own bowling – a split-second that she “still [has] nightmares about to this day”, before later having Ashleigh Gardner stumped.
On the day of the game, she had travelled into Bristol with Ecclestone and Kate Cross to keep herself busy and to take her mind off what was to come, having found out she would play on the previous afternoon.
“My family was there,” she laughs. “I remember Heather giving me the signal that I was going to bowl; it just happened that I was fielding on the boundary where my family was at, so I turned around and looked at them. I was like: ‘Oh my God, what is actually about to happen?’ I just wanted – in a way – to prove a point as to why I was there.
“I didn’t even expect to be put into the side. The night before I think I slept about five hours, which is rare for me. I think I can remember it because there’s footage of it, but without that I don’t think I’d be able to.
“It was all very special – I’ll never forget that day. I don’t think I stopped smiling. It was an unbelievably long 24 hours after finding out. It was all a bit crazy – from playing for the academy to actually making my debut.”
Glenn only made her international debut in December but has already become a key part of Heather Knight's side as the leg-spinner so often cursed as a missing link
Glenn’s first victim came in the opening ODI of the Malaysia trip, with Pakistan wicketkeeper Sidra Nawaz caught by Sciver. Although both she and Villiers had taken part in a group training camp before flying out on that tour, it was the first time either had been away with the squad, followed quickly by the T20 World Cup in Australia.
“I’m not entirely sure how I’d have got through those tours without either one of them,” Villiers admits. “Having someone of your own age comes in handy so much, not just with the cricket aspect but with other stuff – travelling and having someone to talk to who you can relate to and who is of similar age.
“When we were in Malaysia, me, Glenny and Freya Davies played against the women – we played for a boys’ side. Glenny got me through that game – I was having an absolute mare and there was no way that I would have got through the game if she wasn’t there. We all help each other out if we need to.”
Glenn shares a similar viewpoint. The pair have seen a lot in their first four months of international cricket: the highs of debuts and personal success, the lows of an SCG washout against India that put pay to hopes of appearing in front of 86,000 spectators at the MCG.
She thinks back to the moment it all sunk in: a T20I against India in the build-up to the main event. “I remember bowling to Shafali Verma and she hit my second ball for a boundary. It all just hit me a little bit,” she recalls.
“I feel like I’ve got better at dealing with pressure. On my debut, I was just shaking. I was just trying to think straight because I was so nervous, but then it got easier as the tour went on. World Cup pressure is a bit different; once I got my first game out against South Africa, the nerves did start to settle a bit more.
“For me and Mady, as much as we might feel settled in and have been on a couple of tours now, it’s still very new to us. What’s really helpful is that Sophie has so much more experience.”
Even for Ecclestone, however, a dream cut short in March by the Sydney weather made for a difficult pill to swallow, especially when the skies cleared sufficiently for the evening semi-final to take place. “It was awful how we went out,” she reflects of her second global tournament. “We’d worked for six months up until that T20 World Cup and after all the buildup for that, we got knocked out by rain. It’s just annoying to look back on when you’ve done all that work for basically nothing really.”
Still, with just 62 combined years between them, each event is an experience worth living through. Glenn, so impressive in each of her outings thus far, is still just a novice of 13 international caps – hard to believe, given her composure and the consistency of her wrist-spin. Twenty-three wickets have come in that time, with economy rates of 3.36 in ODIs and 5.24 in T20Is. It is an exceptional record, especially for a youngster who for a long time in her teenage years wrestled between focusing on cricket or hockey.
Villiers, meanwhile, has played just four times; England are yet to taste defeat in her presence. Two years ago, she confesses, this would have felt “a million miles away”. The sport was close to losing her.
“I’d had enough of the game, I didn’t want to play, I’d had enough. I was planning to move to Ibiza. Even a year ago, I was just playing for the academy, had no real plans or timeline of where I wanted to be. I was just happy to be back playing and loving playing.”
Quite simply, she could not see herself progressing. “I just felt like I was getting nowhere,” she reflects. “I’d never been in the setup. At 19 or 20, I was playing with 15-year-olds and I just felt that I wasn’t getting anywhere. I just wanted a change, really. I’d like to think that I’d have come back to the game, but you never know.”
Everything changed on Mothers’ Day in 2018 with a call from Richard Bedbrook, the former Surrey Stars coach, who is now regional director of the new London and South East hub.
“Having the opportunity to play in the KSL was brilliant for me,” Villiers explains. When Richard asked me to play for Surrey, I just felt like I needed a break and someone to give me an opportunity really, and he was the man to do that.
“When he called me over, I thought he was kicking me off the programme. I was like: ‘Oh God, I’ve done something wrong – I might as well get on that plane now and go.’”
And of Ibiza, where she had signed up to do a season, how far into the distant past does that flirtation now sound?
“I had booked my flight,” she laughs. “I was just looking for accommodation. Then, Richard asked me to be in the side – I remember it so clearly. I was like: ‘I’ve got flights to Ibiza to do a season, but he’s just told me he wants me to play for Surrey.’ It was a no-brainer. I didn’t have any thinking to do. I didn’t even cancel the flights – my seat was still on the plane. I’m just very grateful for that.”
Once upon a time, she was a budding seamer – “I wouldn’t exactly call it pace,” Villiers insists. “I couldn’t imagine bowling it now.”
Her shift to off-breaks was founded mainly on the short straw of being the youngest player in her Essex side. They didn’t have a spinner, and so Villiers became the default option. At first, it was a struggle. “There was that initial thought that you can’t have a battle because the seamers look like they’re in the fight a bit more than the spinners,” she explains. It is an aspect of the job she has learnt – the principles of the role and the capacity to maintain a competitive edge, having held dreams at one stage of becoming a footballer.
Ecclestone is the world's top-ranked T20I bowler and, still only 21 years of age, has become a focal point of the national side. She was named as player of the summer at last year's PCA awards
“I was part of the Colchester United centre of excellence,” she adds. “Football meant everything to me. I don’t think I had a dress until I was 15, and I would wear tracksuits and astros whenever I left the house.”
She points as well to Marsh – a legend of the women’s game who also started out as a right-arm seamer before becoming England’s off-spinner for more than a decade. Her first ODI – eight years before central contracts – came at the modest, leafy surroundings of Shenley.
And her sense of composure has proven central to Villiers’ progression. The pair have played together for Surrey Stars. “She’s so level-headed and calm,” says the apprentice of her 33-year-old master. “That has rubbed off on me because I can sometimes get a bit tense and rush things through. She has taught me some invaluable stuff.”
Gareth Breese, too – the former Durham off-spinner who now works with England Women. “Probably the most talented coach that I’ve ever worked with on a skill level,” Villiers enthuses, citing Graeme Swann and Nathan Lyon as among those she has sought to emulate.
As for Ecclestone, she is a 21-year-old veteran – 60 games into her international career, among the first names on the teamsheet and a sure bet to break several longstanding records. In T20Is, she already has 50 wickets – only seven players sit above her on England’s all-time chart, each with considerably more experience behind them. She began her cricketing life at Alvanley, an amateur club on the banks of the River Mersey, where her father at one point ran the junior section.
Robin Fisher was an early influence. Now 49 years of age and a policeman, he was the club’s left-arm spinner at the time, while he also represented Cheshire. He recalls a youngster with an inherent ability, always destined to go further than her peers.
“You could just tell,” he says. “When I’d coach her, you didn’t have to tell her that much. She was just naturally talented – we didn’t have to work on her action.
“The ground has got a huge slope. I can count on one hand the number of times I bowled from the road end at Alvanley, being a left-arm spinner. But when we played together, Sophie would get the good end and I’d come on from the other. She bowled really well.”
Ecclestone recalls her time coming through as the only girl on the club’s pathway. It is five years now since she made her first team debut, lining up alongside her brother James. “Some of the boys used to say: ‘Oh, you’ll play for England when you’re older.’ And I’d just go: ‘Whatever, no I won’t – I just play it for fun.’ And now I’m playing for my profession really. It’s my job. It’s quite crazy to look back on.
“I don’t really see it as a job; it’s just something that I love doing. Being able to play cricket for a living and to be able to say I’m a professional cricketer is quite crazy for my family. I know my family can’t believe what I’ve done. It’s amazing. I think I was about 14 or 15 and I was still playing cricket just for fun and as a social event, really. At 16, I got picked up for the development squad and at 17 I made my debut.”
And now, she sits officially as the world’s best – in T20Is, at least, becoming the first English spinner to hold the position since Danielle Hazell in 2015. “When it came out, I was really overwhelmed by it all,” she admits. “Being ranked No.1, that’s something that I’ve dreamt of for a few years.”
It is a curious aspect of this three-pronged relationship: if it is possible to be at the fulcrum of a national team at Ecclestone’s age – she was five when Katherine Brunt made her own England debut, then the left-arm spinner has made that leap. Faced with a super over to decide a tri-series clash with Australia in February, it was in her direction that Knight turned.
“I do see her more as a senior player,” Glenn explains. “I’m sure Mady will say the same thing: if I’m unsure about something, I will go and ask Sophie because she has that experience.” But off the field, I do feel like we’re all in the same boat.”
Villiers concurs. “Off the field she’s a completely different person,” she chuckles, “but on it, she’s so mature and she knows so much about her own game. She is 20 years my senior on the field with her skill level – she’s quality.”
Ecclestone herself pinpoints a pep-talk from Brunt, an icon of the game and the focal point for so long of England’s bowling attack.
“A couple of years ago, Katherine said that she didn’t see me as an academy player anymore – I was one of the first-teamers,” she reflects. “I think that was massive for her to say that to me. And now that Mady and Sarah are coming in, I just want to make it as easy as possible for them to come into the squad.
“Everyone is really close. It genuinely is like a family. People say that it is like a sisterhood, really. We’re there for each other – when you’re on tour as well, everyone spends so much time with each other that you just have to get on. You have to be there for each other.”
Through the T20 World Cup, England were rarely stronger than when Ecclestone and Glenn were operating in tandem. Between the pair, they recorded tournament figures of 14 for 117 from 31.1 overs – an outrageous effort; their economy rates – 3.23 and 4.25 respectively – were the meanest of anyone to take more than three wickets in the competition.
“There were a few words about us being a young team and playing the youngsters,” Ecclestone remembers. “But me and Glenny knew what we were doing. We chat all the time about what the pitch is doing or in training about what we’re going to try to do. We give each other the confidence to go out there and do what we’ve been doing in training.”
England are yet to lose when Villiers has been part of the side. Here, she celebrates the wicket of Shemaine Campbelle with Ecclestone during England's win over West Indies at the T20 World Cup
Glenn, by her own jovial admission, is different: home-schooled until sixth form and an international hockey player at junior level.
There are few leg-spinners in the women’s game who bowl as she bowls. While Poonam Yadav wreaked havoc in the opening game of the tournament against Australia with her slow, loopy offerings, Glenn is the opposite – quicker through the air, flatter in her trajectory, relying more on bounce than side-spin.
Much like Villiers, she began life as a seamer, only reverting to wrist-spin after her father mentioned to her that she was rolling her wrist in delivery. Her style now, utilising her height and targeting the stumps, is more in the mould of Anil Kumble than of Shane Warne, whose videos she watched as she learnt. She is not yet the finished article – certainly in her own eyes. She has the ambition still of finding greater turn as a variation to supplement her natural stock ball.
“The thing is, because I get quite a lot of bounce, I don’t want to lose that,” she explains. “I tried getting more spin when I was younger, but I lost a lot of that bounce. It was quite hard to find that balance of both, so as I got older even though I wasn’t getting as much spin, it just seemed like it was natural to me and what felt right.
“I was thinking about changing it, but people told me that I could still learn to bowl that ball that turns more and then just have it as a variation in a way. If I can learn to do both, then I have options. So, as much as it is tempting to go for more spin, what I do now does feel a lot more effective because I get a bit more dip as well.
“I feel like it’s a harder length to pick up than when I’ve tried to bowl with more spin. Even though I could get more spin, it wasn’t always as accurate. It would get a bit more floaty.”
Life as a young English leg-spinner is a curious existence: as close to a national obsession as you might find within a single sport. Glenn is one of few to represent England Women as a bona fide specialist wrist-spinner in recent years: Sarah Clarke’s final cap came in 2002, it is often forgotten that Charlotte Edwards took 75 international wickets, while Dunkley has been picked for her all-round skills. The search has taken almost two decades. Warne’s legacy, as Hampshire’s Mason Crane told The Cricketer earlier this month, dictates that everyone to attempt the art since has been compared almost as a rite of passage to the Australian great – “perhaps the most complete bowler of all time”, in Crane’s words.
Every team wants one. Robinson, speaking to The Cricketer in the months after his departure from his England post, acknowledged unapologetically that he had been “banging on about leg-spinners for ages”. It was Ali Maiden, Robinson’s assistant through his reign, who gave Glenn her first cap during his stint in interim charge. Ahead of the Malaysia tour, he spoke to The Cricketer in gushing terms of his new secret weapon, describing her then as “the standout spinner in the KSL”.
“We are aware that leg-spin is a massive asset,” he said. “She’s got a fantastic opportunity. Since I’ve been around with Robbo, we’ve been searching and trying to get a leg-spinner through. We know it’s important in the game – we only play 50-over and T20 cricket, so we knew it was absolutely vital.”
Ecclestone adds: “To have a leg-spinner in the team is what this England team has been crying out for for a few years.”
It all comes with a unique pressure, no question. It brings a hopeful expectation that doesn’t exist elsewhere in the game – a combination of inherent distrust and a desperate optimism.
For Glenn, however, it is a sideshow she has tried to ignore. As she progressed through the ranks, she could hardly ignore the dearth of wrist-spinners in the women’s domestic game, but that was as far as she allowed her inner intrigue to venture.
“It did become a motivation,” she admits, “not just because I might have a chance as a leg-spinner, but because I’d always wanted to be part of an England squad – whether as a batter when I was younger or as a bowler.
“I knew what people were saying. It was in the back of my mind because I knew it gave me a chance, but I tried not to think about it too much because it sets such an expectation and that’s when I struggle the most – when I’m overthinking things. I didn’t let it affect my training. That’s when I train my best – when I stay in the moment and don’t think too far ahead.”
Leap forward to the present day and an unlikely journey has reached this point: far more than simply potential at this stage, she has become an increasingly important cog in this England side. It is hard to see a situation where she might now be left out.
In the cases of all three, their ability with the bat remains an untapped weapon in the armoury. In the past, Glenn has opened the innings for Loughborough Lightning, while Villiers has batted at No.3 for Essex in 50-over cricket. Ecclestone is yet to ignite on the international stage but has shown flits of her raw power. She has the tools to become an effective pinch-hitting option in a post-Brunt world – the seamer will not go on forever.
In a transitional period, it is an encouraging axis for the future. English cricket has not always benefited from a resplendent stock of spinners. Come 2030, however, this trinity could be reaching a collective prime. They might all be senior players by then, while the sense of healthy competition will still be present. And you can bet that their bond will remain as strong as ever.
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