World Cup just the beginning for England’s women
Over at cricket with balls, there is unhappiness at the rather muted reaction to the England women’s world cup win compared to what we would have seen with the men were they to win the world cup.
In a way though, this is probably a good thing, at least for the players involved. One of the first rules of sporting success is recognising that becoming a success is the easy part. From this point forward, England will be the team everyone is looking to beat, starting with the Women’s World Twenty20 and the Ashes test this summer.
Rather than marking the beginning of a period of sustained success as we had hoped, the Ashes victory in 2005 was the high point of that team, not because they were reaching the end of their careers, but because of the nonsense that followed. Celebration is fine, but compare the reaction with that of Manchester United when they capture a big trophy – “right, let’s go and win another one”. Instead we are still suffering from the muddled thinking that pervaded ever since.
Admittedly, it had been nearly 20 years since we had beaten Australia, so naturally the celebrations were exuberant. But this resulted in some players losing focus. Combine this with injury problems, particularly, in my opinion, the loss of Simon Jones, and you have the beginning of a downward spiral.
Hopefully the women can use the World Cup win as a springboard to continued success, which will be the real way to build a bigger profile. Rather that than a flash in the pan.
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