Last time the England head coach role became available, in August 2022, Charlotte Edwards did not even apply: she believed that she did not yet have enough experience under her belt. Less than three years later, the England and Wales Cricket Board has concluded that she is such a perfect candidate for the job that it expedited her application, somehow condensing the period between firing one coach (Jon Lewis) and hiring another into the space of three weeks.
Edwards’s record as head coach now speaks for itself: since domestic women’s cricket entered its professional era in 2020, she has led Southern Vipers to five out of nine available titles. She has also won the Women’s Hundred, coached a side to the final of the Women’s Big Bash League in Australia, and (less than three weeks ago) won her second Women’s Premier League in India. It is sometimes said that brilliant players do not translate into brilliant coaches, but Edwards – who during her 20-year playing career won a 50-over World Cup, a T20 World Cup and lifted the Ashes five times – is a notable exception to the rule.
Given the ECB’s track record of hiring England head coaches who have never previously coached in the women’s game, we should all welcome the appointment of someone who understands that coaching women is a different beast to coaching men, and that it is a rare person who can flit between the two (as Lewis attempted unsuccessfully to do).
Indeed, a key element of Edwards’s success as a coach is that she genuinely cares about women’s cricket. Since she was catapulted into the England set-up as a 16-year-old, women’s cricket has been the centre of her world. Offer her the England men’s head coach role tomorrow and – despite the much bigger paycheck on offer – she would turn it down.
Crucially, she also knows women’s cricket in England like no one else. Edwards moved to Hampshire in 2017, and took over as head coach of Southern Vipers in 2020. Since then a sea of young players have been spotted by her, promoted rapidly through the ranks at Hampshire and the Vipers, and been picked up by England. In the current squad Maia Bouchier, Charlie Dean, Lauren Bell and Freya Kemp all have Edwards to thank for their international careers. At a time when England have just been embarrassed by Australia and need to think clear-headedly about whether their current personnel can cut it at the highest level, Edwards is well placed to know who is ready and waiting in the wings.
Furthermore, Edwards is a hard worker who will brook no laziness or excuses. It is difficult to imagine her overseeing a team culture where players feel able to prioritise time spent on the golf course, on yachts and in hotel bars during a World Cup, instead of focusing on their next match. Her appointment sends out a clear message that the ECB is serious about making change: an excellent first step on the road towards picking up the pieces from a disastrous Ashes campaign.
Some might suggest that this latest development favours the appointment of Dean as the next captain: the 24-year-old was mentored by Edwards for years at Hampshire, and the pair won the Women’s County Championship together in 2018. On the other hand, Edwards never elevated Dean to captain at the Vipers (Dean’s only senior captaincy experience came at London Spirit in the Hundred). The new head coach is also known to have a soft spot for another outside candidate for the captaincy role, Grace Scrivens, having attempted (without success) to recruit her to the Vipers several years ago.
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Overall, it seems likely that Edwards will want to take her time to make a fuller assessment of all the potential candidates – from both inside and outside the dressing room. If that means England go into the series against West Indies, which begins on 21 May, with an interim captain rather than a permanent one, then so be it.
For Edwards, the real goal will be lifting the T20 World Cup at home in the summer of 2026. She was removed from her role as England captain before she got the chance to captain her country in the 2017 World Cup at home, as she had long dreamed of doing: poetic justice might yet see her coach them to glory instead.