Speaking to GEORGE DOBELL, the 2017 World Cup winner discusses the highs and lows of bowling left-arm spin for Lancashire, Middlesex and England, and breaking into the media
Who or what made you a cricketer?
I lived on an estate in Blackburn full of boys. We all played football and we always used to meet at the trees. One evening, I went there after school as normal and there was nobody there. Eventually, someone told me they'd gone to the cricket club so I asked my mum if I could go, too. "Not another sport," she groaned as I already did football, gymnastics, ballet and anything else you could imagine.
So I went and instantly fell in love with it. I loved the community and the challenge of getting better at something. I probably would have gone into football if it hadn't been for cricket; I had a few opportunities. But I fell in love with cricket. I just preferred it as a sport. Pretty soon my granddad said to me, "One day, you'll play for Lancashire." That was a motivation. It encouraged me to work hard.
You had quite a tricky journey into the game, being dropped from both county and country academies when 16…
I was a very one-dimensional cricketer. I could bowl brilliant left-arm spin, but I couldn't bat and I couldn't field. I stood out like a sore thumb on the England academy. Everyone else was scoring nine or 10 out of 10 on diving catches in testing and I remember scoring none out of 10. So I can understand why I was dropped.
And then, probably because they lost funding for me from the ECB, I was dropped from the Lancashire Academy a week later. It hit me hard. By then, I was convinced I was going to play for England. I know I had a day or two of sulking. But then I hit the gym. I worked hard, I became stronger and I improved my fielding.
My parents were great, too. They must have driven me to a thousand training sessions or games. I remember complaining to my mum that I couldn't face training one day and she said, "Fine; it'll be much easier for me to stop driving you around. But if you don't go today, I won't take you again." She helped me realise you have to work hard and do the work on the days when you don't feel like it.
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Dismissing Harmanpreet Kaur set England on their way to World Cup glory in 2017 (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
Your determination was such, you also commuted hundreds of miles to play…
Yes, I wanted to play Division One cricket and Lancashire were in Division Two. I wasn't going to play for Yorkshire obviously – I've always been Lancashire at heart – so I went to Middlesex. People forget, but female players didn't move counties at the time. It was quite controversial. Kate Cross – one of my closest friends – was furious. She hardly spoke to me for about three years.
Anyway, I would get up at 5am to drive to training and the night before games, I would stay with one of my team-mates such as Beth Morgan, Danni Warren or Tash Miles, who all took me under their wing. Eventually, I moved down and lived with Izzy Westbury. But it was all inspired by the fact that I didn't like being told I couldn't do it.
I was powered by the desire to prove people wrong. I wasn't actually very talented. I just loved it. And because of that, I worked really hard. I spent hours bowling into a bin in the back garden. The best Christmas present I ever received was six cricket balls. It showed at the end of my career when I was trying to play and work in the media and my skills just dropped off a cliff. I always had to work hard to survive. I left Lancashire to try and improve myself.
Winning a World Cup in 2017 seems like decent reward for that hard work…
It was the best day of my life. I had dreamed about it. I'd worked for it and finally, it happened. I had never played on the main square at Lord's before but our coach, Mark Robinson, took us on a tour of Lord's before the tournament so we were familiar with it. That really helped. I'd actually been on a tour there with my dad when I was 10. I couldn't believe I'd ever get to play there.
Even after my England debut, when I was rubbish, I couldn't have believed it. But it was amazing: a full house; a watershed day for women's cricket; an incredible game. The only thing I regret is drinking too much that night; I don't remember anything about the party.
Hartley celebrates during a KSL encounter with Yorkshire Diamonds (Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)
Your career came on the transition of the women's game becoming professional. But the sums involved weren't big, were they?
Ultimately, that's why I stopped playing. I was captain of Thunder. And I was earning less than £18,000 a year. The coach wanted me at every training session – that's three or four times a week – and clearly at every game. So I suggested I step down as captain, terminate my contract and move to a pay-as-you-play deal.
They were a bit surprised, but I explained I couldn't afford a mortgage or car repayments. The only people who can live off that are those who are still living with their parents. After tax, I was getting £70 a game. The contracts have improved since then but yes, it's true I retired because I wasn't earning enough.
You were struggling with your mental health too, right?
I was. I took a mental-health break when everything became too much for me. I was trying to combine playing with a career in the media and I just didn't take any time off for a couple of years. I didn't have time to train as I needed to and I lost my central contract. I had to work so hard to be any good. But I just didn't have the time to sustain my training and my performances deteriorated.
I used to find the idea of 'the yips' ridiculous. I couldn't understand how it could happen. But suddenly that was me. I couldn't do the thing I'd done so naturally for most of my life. I couldn't bowl. There was a game at Old Trafford where the opposition scored 350 and I only bowled three overs. The captain told me, "I just can't trust you." I was watching TV with my dad one day and Sky used the headline ‘From World Cup winner to trash heap' about me. And I did feel I was on the trash heap.
I went through a period where I couldn't look at my World Cup winner's medal or shirt. I didn't want any reminders about how good I'd been and how much I'd lost. I became a shell of the person I used to be. I absolutely hated my last year as a player. I knew it was time for retirement when, every time a team was announced in The Hundred, I found myself hoping I was left out. And when I was included, I needed to have therapy before the game to deal with the anxiety.
Then I needed therapy after the game, too. I had wanted to finish with Lancashire. But I retired at the end of The Hundred and, do you know what, I haven't needed therapy since that October. Cricket had become a real problem in my life and I've been so much happier since I finished playing. Now that shirt is loud and proud on the wall at home. It's the first thing you see when you come in. And so it should be.
I'm proud of what we achieved. I'm proud of my career. I'm proud of what I overcame. I certainly didn't have any problem in being replaced by Sophie Ecclestone. She's the world's best. She's been the world's best since she broke into the England side. I can hold my hands up and say, "She's better than me." There are no issues there.
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Since taking her leave from the professional game, Hartley has detected a noticeable improvement in her mental health (Alex Davidson/Getty Images)
How did the move into coaching come about?
I was at Lord's one day, hosting a couple of hospitality boxes, and my agent called. He said I'd been offered a job as an assistant bowling coach in the Pakistan Super League. I laughed. I thought it was a joke. But he said, "It's an amazing opportunity and you've got to take it." And he was right.
It's been an amazing opportunity. It was more than a coaching opportunity for me. It was a chance to make a difference. It was a chance to show that women can hold these roles and women can play cricket. I'm so glad I've done it.
I don't want it to become a box-ticking exercise. I don't want a team to appoint a female because they feel like they should. It has to be the right person. But I hope that seeing me and Cath [Dalton] in the dug-out at PSL games can inspire girls and other coaches to think, ‘If they can do, I can do it'.
How did the move into the media come about?
The media career came from nowhere, really. Henry Moeran, from the BBC, just called and asked if I'd like to do some commentary. I wasn't much good at first but I really enjoyed it and it helped me fall back in love with the game. I had a podcast with Kate Cross – No Balls – which we love doing and it seems people like listening to us. So it came from there, really. I work hard. I do the research. I do see that as a big part of my future.
How have you been received by the audience?
I got so much online abuse when I started. Partly, I think, because some people don't like change. But Jonathan Agnew gave me the best bit of advice I've ever had in my life. We went to Sixes cricket, having a net and getting to know each other. He made the point that all the men we were watching who couldn't swing a bat, they were the ones telling me I couldn't play cricket and I should commentate.
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Hartley was openly critical of England after their exit from the Women's T20 World Cup (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
His point was, you've won a World Cup and they haven't got a clue. And he's right. So that gave me some confidence. I still get a bit of abuse but everyone does. It's nothing like it was.
You were critical of the fitness of the England women's team at the recent T20 World Cup. That felt like a significant move from you…
It wasn't a comfortable thing to do, to be honest. But my job is to give my opinion and I'd seen something within the England team which I feel can help improve them. It wasn't why they got knocked out of the World Cup but it's an improvement to help compete with Australia.
My reason for saying it is because I'm an England fan now, I want them to win World Cups, I want them to compete with the world's best and be the world's best.
What was the reaction?
I've had a lot of ‘thank yous' from players, coaches and the media. People have told me I was brave and that it needed saying. I didn't want to upset anyone but sometimes you have to if you're going to tell the truth. But it's still not nice. I know I've upset friends and it does feel I've now crossed a line between being a player and being a member of the media. This was the moment I made that transition, I suppose.
This article first appeared in the February 2025 issue of The Cricketer magazine. Subscribe here
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