‘HOW I BUILD MY BODY’
MY JOURNEY
‘I grew up in a hugely sporty family – dad was a professional footballer, my older sister trialled for England netball, and my older brother played cricket professionally – and we were always playing cricket in the back garden. My brother was an opening batter by trade and my sister was the wicket keeper, which explains how I became a bowler. I was always at my brother’s local cricket club, too. From there, my story is a simple one of being in the right place at the right time, surrounded by the right people.
‘I always wanted to play with the boys, and I was lucky that my brother’s team let me in to play for the under-11s at nineyears-old. Politics came into play as I grew older and began challenging for a place on the senior team, mainly because there’d never been a girl playing for a first team in our league. But the Lancashire women’s cricket set-up was quite well established, and I made my senior debut for them at 13-years-old which is quite ludicrous really.
‘Although I was picked for the England Academy at the age of 16 and aspired to play for England, cricket was still just a hobby while I studied psychology at university, mainly because playing sport professionally wasn’t a career option for women at the time. By the time I graduated, I’d developed a love/hate relationship with cricket, and I decided if I didn’t do well during the next season playing at county level, I’d leave. As it happened, I had a great season, finally got picked to play for England and suddenly there were professional contracts on the table, so I became a full-time cricketer, making my England debut at the age of 23. My cricket journey has involved breaking down many barriers, but I did those things not because I wanted to be the first woman to do them, but because I loved cricket and wanted to play as much as much as possible.’
TRAINING
‘Cricket’s a strange sport in that you don’t get fit from playing it, but you must be fit to play. I train with Lancashire at Old Trafford six days a week, with a more structured routine in the winter and a greater focus on performance and preparation for matches in the summer. That said, the structure of my week is fairly consistent throughout the year, with three strength sessions a week, two or three conditioning sessions (either a bike or run), and a couple of speed sessions, in addition to my cricket skills sessions (where I
