Charlotte Edwards: ‘I’m under no illusions, this role is about winning’

Cliff Notes – Charlotte Edwards: ‘I’m under no illusions, this role is about winning’

• Charlotte Edwards, newly appointed England Women’s head coach, emphasised a shift in focus from ‘inspire and entertain’ to prioritising winning, aiming to transform the team’s performance ahead of the World Cup.
• Edwards plans to hold players accountable for their fitness and intends to assess the team’s physical condition in her first week, believing that improvement is essential for success.
• With a commitment to developing intelligent players and enhancing performance at the domestic level, Edwards aims to build a competitive squad capable of excelling in upcoming international tournaments.

Charlotte Edwards: ‘I’m under no illusions, this role is about winning’

Valkerie Baynes

CloseValkerie Baynes is a general editor at ESPNcricinfoApr 2, 2025, 05:04 PM

“It’s about winning.” With those three words, uttered 24 hours after being named England Women’s head coach, Charlotte Edwards set out her mission to turn an underperforming team into World Cup contenders within six months.

Effectively dispensing with the ‘inspire and entertain’ mantra introduced two years ago by her predecessor, Jon Lewis, Edwards wasn’t afraid to tread into territory that makes some other coaches squeamish. Similarly, she was forthright about the need to hold players accountable for their fitness.

“They’ve had this mantra of entertaining and inspiring over the last little bit, and I think it’s probably just changing their focus,” Edwards told reporters at Lord’s on Wednesday. “It’s bottling that entertaining and that aggressive approach, but for me, it’s about their game smarts and their game awareness about winning.

“I’m under no illusions. I’ve come into this role, it’s about winning. I think coaches are sometimes too scared to say we want to win. That’s our job. My job is to win games of cricket, and I think it’s how we go and do that now.

“That looks different on each given day and I just want to create some intelligent players who win games of cricket for England, and that’s going to be how I’ll go about stuff over the next few weeks, and try and instil that within the players.”

Lewis lost his job following the 16-0 Ashes drubbing in Australia in January, which followed a shock group-stage exit at the T20 World Cup last October.

Those results brought into question the fitness of some players in the squad, particularly when compared to the fiercely athletic Australian team.

“My first week is actually profiling next week, so I’m going to judge for myself about where the team are with their fitness,” Edwards said. “I will make the players more accountable for fitness, so that’s something I’m going to do.

“But there’s many aspects to this and I think the results from the winter, although 16-nil, I know that we are closer to that than what that scoreline suggested. I wouldn’t have taken on this role if I didn’t think that, in six months’ time, we could win a World Cup in India. I think we’ve got the playing group to do that.

“We’ve got a lot of hard work and we’ve got a lot of honesty in that time before then, but I’m really confident that, given some time with this group, that we can turn things around very quickly.”

England dropped five catches against West Indies ICC/Getty Images

The Ashes proved the final straw for Lewis and Heather Knight, who lost her job as captain, although she will remain available for selection as a player, following a sweeping review into the team’s performances.

There had been a sense that Edwards would be reluctant to coach a team containing a core of players she had led as England captain until her retirement in 2016, but she welcomed the opportunity, feeling that enough time had passed.

Edwards has stepped down from head coaching roles with Mumbai Indians, Sydney Sixers and Hampshire to fully focus on the England job, having won eight titles in five years at franchise and domestic level.

“The great thing now is I’ve worked with them a lot in all the franchise competitions that I’ve worked in,” she said. “They’ve seen a very different person from Lottie the captain to Lottie the coach.

“I think I’m a much better coach than I was captain, if I’m honest. There’s been enough time now between me playing with them all and I’m thoroughly looking forward to it. I’ve had some lovely messages from the players over the last 24 hours and I’m just super excited to get there on Monday.”

Among Edwards first tasks’ will be to appoint a new captain, which she anticipated doing sooner rather than later after linking up with the team, saying she had a clear idea of her No.1 contender.

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In terms of the coaching role, Edwards was the standout candidate, with Clare Connor, Managing Director England Women’s cricket, confirming that she was appointed without “the normal sort of open-recruitment process” that would be used for a coach at that level.

That means the ECB ignored its own pledge to adhere to the Rooney Rule in recruiting head coaches. Under the rule, at least one applicant from black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds are to be interviewed.

Connor also revealed that, as a result of the review, the ECB would set out in the coming days to recruit a national selector for the first time since the women’s game became professional in England and Wales. That would feed into a commitment to foster greater links and communication with domestic teams.

Centrally contracted England players are expected to be available for the first seven rounds of the domestic 50-over competition, starting on April 19, with a strong emphasis on performance for selection in those games.

Jon Lewis and Heather Knight share a lighter moment at England training PA Images via Getty Images

She also said players’ physical, mental and overall preparedness to compete at the highest level had been examined.

“All of that professional standards, we’ve had some really good feedback on,” Connor said. “The domestic game we got feedback from, and from some notable figures in the world game as well.

“Going back to our criteria and the appointment of Lottie, no one knows better what those professional standards need to be now. She’s seen it around the world. We’ve seen it for ourselves, obviously, during the Ashes in the starkest sense.

“The pace of change in women’s cricket, it’s been fast and it’s been demanding. I think we’ve supported players well through those last few years. I think one of the things around the professionalisation is making sure that we’re challenging as well as being supportive.

“That’s our role, to support players, but also challenge them and support them for successful times, and to perform under pressure.”

Edwards believes that a focus on performance at domestic level as a benchmark for national selection will go some way to addressing the England team’s shortcomings in pressure situations, as laid bare in their error-strewn T20 World Cup defeat to West Indies and throughout the Ashes.

With home series against West Indies and India this summer before the 50-over World Cup in India from late September and a home T20 World Cup next year, getting that aspect of the game right is crucial, with Edwards putting a strong emphasis on improving in the 50-over format.

“We’ve got a lot of young players who, for me, haven’t played enough cricket, so I want them to experience playing more cricket, being put in those situations time and time again and earning your England cap,” Edwards said.

“The door is not shut to anyone and that’s going to be a strong message coming out today, but hopefully starting with the county season, that’s going to be a really positive thing.

“I’m not going to talk too much about the past. For me it’s all about the future and what I see is that we’ve got a really talented squad and I think we’ve got some of the best players in the world, some really talented high-potential young players, which I’m looking forward to working with.”