Cricket at the Commonwealth Games: What to look out for...

The Cricketer looks ahead to women's cricket's debut at the Commonwealth Games

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What does cricket look like at a multisport event?

At the end of England's win over South Africa at Chelmsford, Katherine Brunt and Sarah Glenn spoke about what it meant to be taking part in the Commonwealth Games, a multisport event, where – barring one edition that featured men's cricket in 1998 – the women's game has never been.

Brunt effectively painted the opportunity as a lifelong ambition, built on a childhood spent watching Olympians and dreaming of being them. "I just adored those people and thought they were gods," she said. "To literally now be around those people and feel a part of what they're doing and who they are is, without being too corny, what my dreams were made of, and I'm sure the girls think the same. I never ever thought this would happen."

For Glenn, it feels closer to home: she grew up as a promising hockey player, revelling in Team GB's gold medal triumph in Brazil six years ago. It has given her a different perspective.

"It is honestly amazing," she said. "When we went to the Kit Out day, how everything was brought back all the memories and made me a bit emotional actually because it is so good to feel you are just one team from multiple teams."

When golf re-joined the Olympics after its 112-year absence in 2016, several of the top players opted out, and Rory McIlroy suggested that his lack of motivation simply came from a place of having other pinnacles to fight for in his sport – four majors, all of which trumped the idea of Olympic gold.

From all that's been said since the squads have been announced for the next fortnight, that attitude hasn't been visible. Instead, Tammy Beaumont was gutted to be omitted from England's squad, while Lea Tahuhu called her late call-up "a dream".

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Matthew Mott is no longer in charge of Australia (Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)

How it plays out will be fascinating in the context of a jampacked summer that has already meant as a side effect that the women's strand of The Hundred has been slightly shortened and delayed. Edgbaston will be stretched to its limits, with 16 matches taking place in 10 days at a single venue that has in the last month alone has hosted T20 Blast Finals Day, a Test match, a County Championship fixture and a Blast quarter-final.

Multisport events bring different crowds too, with a major opportunity to attract new eyes to the women's game – not only in Birmingham but with the BBC as host broadcaster.

It doesn't necessarily feel like a natural marriage, given the sheer amount of time required to complete an eight-team cricket tournament within a fortnight-long event, but a successful audition can only help cricket's cause as it pushes for Olympic status.

Hayley Matthews' Barbados

One of the immediate, stark differentiators is the presence of Barbados rather than a West Indies side, whose status as a multinational Caribbean team meant their allocated slot had to be given to a specific country.

Barbados, captained by Hayley Matthews and coached by Corey Collymore, were picked by Cricket West Indies on the strength of their victory in the 2018/19 Twenty20 Blaze, the regional tournament. That decision was made last August, at which point the competition hadn't taken place for two years because of the pandemic. Last month, Jamaica beat Barbados in the first final since Barbados' win over Guyana in April 2019.

Although it rules out former West Indies skipper Stafanie Taylor, the Jamaican allrounder, Barbados' squad features Deandra Dottin and Matthews, who replaced Taylor at the helm of West Indian cricket following the World Cup earlier this year.

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Australia's men won silver when the Commonwealth Games last featured cricket in 1998 (Hamish Blair/Getty Images)

England have taken Australia's coach – will that stop the world champions in their tracks?

International cricket's most dominant juggernaut will be tested for the first time since the man at its driving seat, Matthew Mott, departed for another dominant white-ball team on the other side of the world.

There is a legitimate argument that no sporting outfit has been quite so superior in their field over the last five years as Australia's women's setup, so losing Mott to England's men's limited-over machine might just represent the first significant bump in the road for some time. In all likelihood, Meg Lanning's squad will merely continue as normal, much as they have done in coping with injuries to Ellyse Perry and Georgia Wareham, wheeling out Tahlia McGrath and Alana King as ready-made replacements.

Shelly Nitschke is a natural choice as interim head coach, while Lanning remains an authoritative, widely respected leader. Ben Sawyer's departure from his assistant's post to take up Bob Carter's role as New Zealand head coach, though, means a totally fresh start: there might not be a better time to take on the world's best team.

England's gung-ho blueprint

There was a time in the very recent past when it would have seemed incomprehensible for England to dispense with as proven an international run-scorer as Tammy Beaumont merely because she wasn't deemed to score quickly enough. But the investment into the regional game in England – not to mention the impact of The Hundred – has instigated a major growth in the national player pool, so much so that Lisa Keightley has made her boldest call in two-and-a-half years as head coach.

Beaumont has been replaced with a myriad of players: Sophia Dunkley has been the direct beneficiary at the top of the order, partnering Danni Wyatt as an ultra-aggressive player of strong, authentic cricket shots, while Bryony Smith has been added effectively as a floating hitter – either at No.3 or in the lower middle order as a hard-hitting finisher. She is yet to properly come off in what is certain to be a volatile position needing time and trust, but even merely as a concept it epitomises what New England are looking to be.

The same is true with the ball, where Issy Wong is the most aggressive pick possible – less accurate or precise than Kate Cross and Lauren Bell, but quicker and more imposing than both – and Sarah Glenn provides a leg-spin option.

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New Zealand are at the start of a new era (Dave Rowland/Getty Images)

New Zealand's new start

Out with the old, in with the new: the story of New Zealand's approach since their home World Cup ended in a group-stage exit. Bob Carter has been replaced as head coach by Ben Sawyer, wicketkeeper Katey Martin retired, and others have since followed.

Amy Satterthwaite was ruthlessly disposed of: "It's come out of the blue and a bit of a shock," she admitted. "I haven't been given any insight that this was the direction they wanted to go. It was pretty devastating to hear... and it's been an emotional few days to digest it all and comes to term with it." She subsequently retired from international cricket.

Off-spinners Frances Mackay and Leigh Kasperek were both omitted from the White Ferns' central contracts list, as was Lea Tahuhu. As fate would have it, Tahuhu is in England after all – called up following an injury to Jess Kerr and the decision taken by Lauren Down to opt out in order to prioritise her mental wellbeing. But there are first-time selections for Eden Carson and Izzy Gaze, while Jess McFayden and Georgia Plimmer are also uncapped.

Captain Sophie Devine might well have her work cut out, but she might also argue the bigger picture – that the old guard had won just two of their last six T20I series and haven't made it out of their group at either of the last two T20 World Cups. The Commonwealth Games represents their new beginnings.


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Comments

Posted by Oscar on 27/07/2022 at 11:49

The flaw in the last para for NZ is that this isn’t a new beginning - this is the status quo for the White Ferns: inexplicably leave out experienced players who are performong well (certainly by the standards of the team); bring in new, young players with middling domestic records but ‘potential’; finish lower and lower at ICC tournaments. Mackay, Ebrahim, Satterthwaite, Macglashan, Priest, Kasperek - it’s a long list of dropping or ‘not selecting’ proven players.

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