Charlotte Edwards interview with Sky Sports – an analysis

Charlotte Edwards spoke to Sky Sport after her appointment as Head Coach of the England Women's Cricket Team. Richard analysed her answers and what the future of English cricket could look like under Charlotte Edwards.

Quote credits to Sky Sports.

LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 02: Charlotte Edwards, Head Coach of the England Women's cricket team poses for a portrait at Lord's Cricket Ground on April 02, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Alex Davidson - ECB/ECB via Getty Images)

Question: Is this a good time to be taking over the women’s team seeing that the team is in turmoil and there is only one way you can go?

Lottie: Yes I think so, once I got the call it was straight away a “yes” I felt it was the right time for me. And where the team are at the moment this is a good time for me to take over. So I’m really excited about the role. Obviously I played for a number of years, I’ve had 8 or 9 years out of the team now doing various different coaching roles and it just feels the right time for me.

Analysis: In September 2022 when Lisa Keightly stepped down, it was a surprise that Edwards ruled herself out. She was probably the strongest candidate then. This says to me that she only wanted to take on this role when she was at the top of her game, had gained all the experience she needed to from around the world and was able to give it her best shot, knowing that you only ever get one shot at this job.

Question: Is it the last few domestic titles that have convinced you to take the job now because you didn’t want it when it was available a few years ago?

Lottie: Yes. I think it’s experience and confidence. Going away and coaching the Sydney Sixers with the likes of Healy, Perry, Gardner in that team. Mumbai Indians with all their players. It’s enabled me to gain real experience certainly under high pressure and I think it has really prepared me for this role now. I feel absolutely ready to take on an international role. It has always been my ambition and there’s never great timing – two weeks out from the county season and I thought I’d be coaching Hampshire in a couple of weeks, but I’m very lucky that they’ve let me take on this role. It’s definitely the right time for me.

Analysis: Lottie pinpoints success in global franchise leagues as the key preparation for international success. Who from the current crop of coaches could we be sending to be coach or assistant coach in WBBL and WPL franchises? Dani Hazell?

Question: Was it a completely straightforward decision to give up Hampshire, Mumbai and Sydney to take on this job?

Lottie: I think it was straightforward. I care enormously about England. You don’t play for twenty years and hang up your boots and suddenly not care about England cricket. I sat and watched the Ashes like everyone else and it was hard to watch. I was disappointed and it was clear to me that I wanted to do the role if it became available and I feel incredibly privileged to be asked to do it.

Analysis: Lottie really wanted this job and has been waiting to step up for a while. She is clearly frustrated by the way England have been led for a while.

Question: Have you had some good reaction from some of the players that you have coached?

Lottie: It's been really overwhelming the last 24 hours because I picked up my phone about four o clock yesterday and there were 300 messages on my phone. And a lot of them from players, so that is a mark of how much I am respected within the game and obviously asking if I’m still going to do franchise cricket. I actually spoke to Elysse yesterday morning because I wanted to tell her myself – and I wanted to tell a number of people myself because I did love all the roles: Sydney, Mumbai, I had a wonderful experience there and obviously won two titles but the attraction of this role – what’s coming up: a 50 over World Cup, a T20 World Cup at home, an Olympics, I can’t turn down that. Wearing the three lions for me means everything. I’m just super excited now.

Analysis: The players who are part of Lottie’s teams clearly enjoy working for her and remain close to her afterwards. Lottie is motivated most to be successful in the big tournaments. Very interesting that she mentioned the Olympics. Previously England have been successful in bilateral against teams other than Australia and (to a certain extent) India. Now the focus is going to be completely on success in the big tournaments.

Question: Would it have been sensible to appoint the coach first and then make the decision on the captain?

Lottie: First of all it’s not really my decision. The ECB have completed their review and were pretty clear about what they wanted to do – they wanted a leadership reset and I was asked after that and so…

Analysis: I don’t think Lottie is completely happy that it has happened this way round, like a key initial decision has been taken out of her hands, when ultimately she will carry the can for the decision about who is captain.

Question: Did you agree with that?

Lottie: Well I haven’t actually seen the review yet and I think that’s actually something I want to see over the next couple of weeks. I want to know what exactly the reaction was to the Winter – it’s important for me to know moving forward. I have my own views and I was part of that review as well which was really important because I feel – that’s why I publicly said I wanted to help because there was lots of stuff I’d learn from coaching round the world and being involved in Hampshire in the domestic set up I knew there were things we could improve on that would make England cricket better in many ways. So I wasn’t involved in that decision and I guess the leadership reset is what the team needs.

Analysis: She is clearly distancing herself from this decision, but saying that she trusts that when she reads the review it will reveal something that makes Heather continuing as captain not an option. Again she links England’s success with the counties and the domestic game as a whole, but clearly indicating that this was badly neglected by the previous regime.

Question: Is being captain a tougher job now then it was in your day and how well (or otherwise) did Heather do it?

Lottie: She did an amazing job – and to do it for 9 years under more scrutiny than myself and Clare had had was incredible. I really felt for her after the Ashes. |I actually texted her after the last game because – she’s actually batting better than I’ve ever seen Heather – and you do take it personally, whatever you say, as captain you do take it personally and I really felt for her and she did look very tired. It had the feeling that she was potentially going to step down. She did an amazing job. Obviously won the World Cup out here in 2017. I think we’re very lucky to have Heather Knight still in the team and that’s one thing I’m really pleased about because she is the ultimate professional in my eyes – someone I want around this England group, to share her experiences, her leadership. So I think the best is yet to come from Heather.

Analysis: This is a clear message to Heather Knight – this is not awkward, you have nothing to be ashamed of, you did not fail, you are wanted. Remain and be part of this group. I need you to model professionalism to others and provide leadership. One senses that it is tricky for an ex-captain to find their place and role in a team without undermining their successor. This is a tricky course which will need navigating over the next few weeks and months.

Question: What were you expecting of England in the Ashes?

Lottie: I wasn’t expecting them to lose 16-0. I was expecting it to be close. I know how much the Australians regard England – they really do know that this England team is a good team. Basically the first two games – I think the game at Melbourne was the game where things unravelled really. I think not to chase 180 that just gave Australia momentum and they just ran with it. I think what surprised me was the scrutiny the team were under, obviously the fielding wasn’t great and you could just see the lack of confidence by the end of the trip, so yes it was hard to watch.

Analysis: England underperformed massively. They are much better than they demonstrated in Australia. Once things started going wrong, the leaders were unable to stop everything unravelling. Poor leadership led to a drop in confidence and performance – these are clearly things she intends to deal with in the new regime.

Question: You’ve got to pick a new captain or captains. What’s your thinking at the moment?

Lottie: I’ve got a clear idea. I’ve got a few meetings over the next week. I want this person announced pretty quickly. It will be one captain…

Question: That narrows it down because you’ve not got that many players who are multi-format have you?

Lottie: For me across the white ball stuff it’s got to be one person. We’ve got a bit of time, but in the next ten days hopefully.

Analysis: We shall see…

Question: Do you think the criticisms of the team (fitness, fielding, relationship with media) were fair enough?

Lottie: Yes I think they were. I think what we need to do moving forward is be more honest. I think I’m certainly going to be honest with the players and I want them to be honest with themselves. We’re going to have to work really hard. We’re far behind Australia and we’ve got to be honest about that. I think some of the things that happened in Australia... I think it’s about England players understanding their responsibilities as England cricketers, I think that’s going to be such an important part of my role. We’ve got a lot of young players who’ve grown up in not a professional environment and so I think setting those professional standards is going to be really important. In terms of fitness… I’m with the team next week, I’ll judge their fitness standards then. They will be made more accountable for fitness. I cannot have conversations about fitness with an England cricket team, it’s just a non-negotiable for me and so that will be my stance moving forward.

Analysis: This is one of the key answers she gives. What she sees as one of the most important parts of her role is to get England players to understand what it means to play for England. The responsibility that comes with that role and therefore the accountability that goes with it. “Young players who have grown up in not a professional environment”. An intriguing statement. I’m sure she’s not talking about anyone who played for The Vipers. Of course, it’s the older players who grew up in the amateur era. Anyone under 23 will have been a professional since they left school. It seems like she is suggesting that some of the regions and Lewis’s England set-up were not professional environments.

Question: When some of your better players are not fit enough – you’re a better side for having them in the team, you can’t leave them out. What do you do?

Lottie: I think they are conversations you’ve got to have. I think you’ve got to build relationships with these players for them to actually understand the importance of that area of the game now. Fitness is an individual thing. We’re not expecting everyone to run whatever (distance) in certain times but I think as long as you’re fit for purpose, you’re buying into the team culture and you’re working as hard as you possibly can. I was never the fittest, but I worked as hard as I possibly could. And that’s going to be the message, I just want everyone working as hard as they possibly can so that when they walk out on the field there are no regrets, there’s nothing being put into question

Analysis: She is telling players they are going to have to buy in to the hard work ethos or they will be out

Question: Towards the end of your career you were struggling with your knees, you were struggling to move, but you were one of the best players in the team. Would you have left Charlotte Edwards out?

Lottie: Probably! Probably now. But you know that was really good for me. That last year of my playing career was really good for me. I really understood the importance of fitness, certainly at T20 level it’s so important. And I’ve always said to the players that I’m never going to let that be an issue for players who work under me because I think that’s something we’ve got to instil in youngsters early and that’s the conversation I’m going to be having with counties now is that we’re instilling these really good behaviours in players. I think that’s part of my job now, it’s not just at the England level, it’s drip-feeding all of this down so when they play for England they’re absolutely ready to perform.

Analysis: She is again saying that the regions were not doing their job properly. They were not instilling professional standards on young players and therefore not preparing them for England. Young players were being selected for England unprepared for the level of professionalism needed. As a result the professionalism standards of England dropped. From now on she will be telling the counties how to prepare their players to play for England. The ECB will enforce standards on the counties.

Question: Is there an issue of handling pressure in key moments for England?

Lottie: Well yes there is because that’s clear. The way we rectify that is, I believe, we get them playing more, we get them having to perform at domestic cricket and we keep putting them in those pressure situations, so when they do play for England, it’s not alien to them and it’s quite a simple fix for me. I think a boy at the same age as a girl plays so much more cricket, whereas some of the players in women’s cricket don’t have that exposure and I think what I want to do now is make sure that they’re playing a lot more cricket and certainly the 50 over game because I think that’s where you learn about your game awareness etc, and so that’s going to be a theme moving forward and performances count now. Selection will be done on performance rather than on potential or younger players because they bowl left arm, it’s going to be… probably give a lot more hope to a lot more county players that the door is not shut for anyone.

Analysis: She is saying that how you play for your county in those first seven games of the season is the main way she will decide on who plays for England against the West Indies. She expects the England contracted players to play and to dominate. If they don’t, other people will take their place. Selection on performance rather than potential is also crucial. Players who get picked for England despite not having played much county will be a thing of the past. The door re-opens for a generation of players previously shut out. Mahika Gaur is going to have to earn her England place by playing brilliantly for Lancashire

Question: Where do you stand on the balance between entertaining and winning?

Lottie: I think there’s a lot we can take from that and I’ve said before publicly that there’s a lot we can take from the way the players have played over the last couple of years because I think that they’ve certainly seen what they can do. What I need to do is to build that game awareness piece in there because ultimately international cricket, well, any game of cricket that I was involved in was about winning and I’m not going to be scared to say “I want to win”. I think what we’ve got to do is get players to learn how to win. And that might be a different situation every time they play. I feel like recently there’s been one way of playing and that’s the only way they can play and I think I want to produce intelligent players who want to win games for England and I think that’s something I can really help with

Analysis: This is a scathing critique of Lewis’s “inspire and entertain” philosophy. It’s about winning. It’s about being smart enough to know exactly what is needed in every circumstance to win. There is more than one way of playing. We need to have a plan for every circumstance, not one plan regardless of the circumstance

Question: You played with some of the older players in the team. Is that an advantage or a disadvantage?

Lottie: I think it’s an advantage. I’ve also worked with them a lot now through my coaching career. I think that’s been a real benefit to me. I think the last couple of years working with Nat (Sciver-Brunt) at the Mumbai Indians, getting to know Nat since she’s become a world superstar it’s been lovely to see her development and her see me in a slightly different light as well because I’m a much better coach than I was captain for sure. I feel very confident walking into that dressing room that they know me as the coach now not Lottie as the captain

Analysis: A good example of how she relates to people as a coach. When she first played alongside Nat Sciver-Brunt in 2013, Nat was 20 and had played for Surrey for 3 years. Edwards had been an England player for 16 years and captain for the previous 8 years. The comment about being a better coach than captain is interesting. She was a multiple World Cup and Ashes winning captain. She clearly knows that she’s even better than that as a coach!

Question: That’s at the top end, the other advantage is you have done your time in domestic cricket. You know the structure, you know the system, you know the talent and you know what needs to be done at those grass root levels to get people through

Lottie: Yes and that has been one of my strengths very early on was developing young players. I think working with the likes of Charlie Dean, Lauren bell, Maia Bouchier, Freya Kemp at Hampshire and them going on to play for England – that’s important for me and I think that’s one of my real strengths but then obviously the last three years working with the top end players (in franchise cricket) has really helped me. So I think I’m a more rounded coach now with different styles for different age groups. And you know this team has got quite a disparity in some senior players but then some real youngsters and that’s what I’m really looking forward to -it’s quite a good group to work with in that sense.

Analysis: Edwards matches her strengths to the needs of this team. She’s good at making young players better (like at Vipers). She’s good at getting the best out of senior players (like at Sydney and Mumbai)

Question: What are your thoughts on the strength or otherwise of domestic cricket right now?

Lottie: It’s really strong and I’m so proud of our domestic scene at the moment. I’ve lived and breathed it for five years. I’ve been at every game for the last five years and I’ll continue to be at every game I possibly can over the next few weeks as well. In fact that’s what I didn’t want to come out of the review to say that we’re not in a good place, because I think we are. Actually Australia are quite envious of our domestic structure. I think we’ve got it right. We’ve now got more contracts in place. We play more cricket than them, we play a variety of cricket, which is great, so that’s why I think that me coming into this role is so important as well because I understand that part of the game and I know what’s needed and I’m going to work closely with all the county coaches to enable us all to work together because I think that’s going to be vitally important for the success of the England team.

Analysis: This is how this sounds. On the one hand, our structure is great – the envy of the world. On the other hand, I’m going to be talking to the coaches and telling them how to prepare players for international cricket because they’re not doing it very well at the moment

Question: Are you going to take the team in a completely different direction with lots of changes?

Lottie: I don’t think we need to go in a completely different direction. I think it’s about tinkering just resetting a few things. My main focus is going to be the 50 over game – understanding a blueprint that’s going to be successful for us in the World Cup in India. Instilling that really quickly. Drip feeding that to counties to say this is how we want to play as an England team, so I think there are some real quick fixes here and that’s what excites me the most. I don’t think it’s a big overhaul, it’s just some fine tuning and I think hopefully we’ll all be back on track.

Analysis: Again – a big emphasis on the ECB telling counties how England will be playing and therefore you need to set yourselves up in alignment with us. No revolution, just tinkering, but earlier she said that playing well for your county will get you selected, so there could be big changes if top players do not perform

Question: You’ve got West Indies, India, then the World Cup. Just cast your eye over what is to come this season.

Lottie: Yes, West Indies, it's my first series as coach, so I’m really looking forward to that. I actually think it’s quite a nice progression through the summer. They’re going to be strong, they’ve obviously got some of their big hitters back. India will be a massive challenge leading into the World Cup. And then a World Cup in India. Obviously I’ve spent a lot of time out there. I’ve got good knowledge of their players, etc, so I think it’s a really nice lead in and something we’re looking forward to

Analysis: Clearly, she’s already making detailed plans for the World Cup. She has already said that 50 over cricket will be the focus this summer

Question: What are the differences between a domestic coach, a franchise coach and an international coach?

Lottie: I think I’m going to have a lot more time on my hands… (Is that a good thing?)… Yes I think it is because I think it’s going to give me greater focus and I think it was that I was screaming out for if I’m honest. I like a project and this is a big project for me and something I can get my teeth into. I think the strategy side as well it really excites me – planning for those big world events. I’ll tell you in a few months how I’m getting on. If you think that in a domestic summer I’d be at 45 games of cricket. I might only have 20 games of England cricket per year but those games are bog with that preparation, but I’m really looking forward to that, having one focus, one purpose – I’m ready to go

Analysis: It feels that she is excited about the luxury of preparation time you get at international level compared with domestic level. Going from leading three teams to leading just one must seem a real chance to focus on the main thing

Question: Is women’s cricket unstoppable now?

Lottie: I think so. I go every year thinking “this is amazing” I sit in dugouts and I sometimes have to pinch myself to think I’m sitting in these dugouts and seeing the excitement around women’s cricket right now. So I hope people keep supporting. I hope all of England’s games this summer a re going to be sold out because I think that’s what the game deserves now and it’s pretty exciting to be involved

Analysis: Lottie continues to be all about growing the game. I would add that growing domestic cricket alongside international cricket needs to be a focus too and England matches need to be a chance to market the domestic game better