{"id":180181,"date":"2025-05-13T19:18:04","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T19:18:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/13\/nat-sciver-brunt-starts-england-captaincy-reign-but-edwards-is-power-behind-throne\/"},"modified":"2025-05-13T19:18:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T19:18:04","slug":"nat-sciver-brunt-starts-england-captaincy-reign-but-edwards-is-power-behind-throne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/13\/nat-sciver-brunt-starts-england-captaincy-reign-but-edwards-is-power-behind-throne\/","title":{"rendered":"Nat Sciver-Brunt starts England captaincy reign but Edwards is power behind throne"},"content":{"rendered":"

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England\u2019s 16-0 whitewash at the hands of Australia earlier this year sparked widespread calls for change. On Tuesday, as the new captain Nat Sciver-Brunt gave her first press conference since she was appointed<\/a> last month, the curtain finally rose just enough to give the public a tantalising glimpse at a very new-look England setup.<\/p>\n

Twenty-four hours previously, the head coach, Charlotte Edwards, and the newly chosen national selector (whose identity is yet to be revealed) had sat down to select England\u2019s squad to face West Indies in the series beginning on 21 May \u2013 without Sciver-Brunt\u2019s input.<\/p>\n

Edwards, Sciver-Brunt revealed, has taken the decision to remove her new skipper from all formal selection committees. \u201cMy\u00a0views are heard pre-meeting,\u201d Sciver-Brunt said. \u201cI haven\u2019t been part of the big meeting. The new national selector will take that role, to lighten the burden of being\u00a0captain.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Perhaps Edwards simply felt that Sciver-Brunt \u2013 who in the past six weeks has watched her wife give birth, undergone electroshock therapy for an achilles injury and received a phone call from Edwards to tell her she was about to become the new England captain \u2013 already had enough to be going on with?<\/p>\n

Except that this is a permanent change. In fact, it is the clearest signal yet that this new era of England women\u2019s cricket will be driven forward by Edwards: she will set the standards and write the plans, and the captain will implement them. Sciver-Brunt described her role as \u201cfocusing on pitch things and winning games for England\u201d. That is a 180-degree shift from her predecessor, Heather\u00a0Knight, whose voice on and off the pitch was heard more loudly than either of England\u2019s previous head coaches, Jon Lewis and Lisa Keightley.<\/p>\n

If the world really is divided into Type As (ambitious and driven) and Type Bs (carefree and even-tempered), then Sciver-Brunt is an archetypal Type B, recently described by Edwards as \u201claid-back and unassuming\u201d. Edwards wanted a captain who could lead from the front: Sciver-Brunt emerged from the wreckage of last winter\u2019s Ashes still one of the world\u2019s leading all-rounders. But the leadership style of a Type B is likely to be more focused on inspiring and motivating those around them than imposing decisive plans.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Charlotte Edwards has worked closely with Nat Sciver-Brunt at Mumbai Indians in the Women\u2019s Premier League.<\/span> Photograph: Ben Whitley\/PA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sciver-Brunt is a textbook example. \u201cAs a leader, I want to empower people to be the best version of themselves,\u201d she said last week. \u201cAs a group, I want us all to work really hard for each other and the team. I\u2019ll be having conversations with everybody to work out the best way to work with them when we\u2019re on the pitch and what they would need from me to help them best work.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are two problems for the softly spoken Sciver-Brunt. The first is that she takes office at a nadir for England women\u2019s cricket: the scrutiny-genie of last winter\u2019s Ashes is never getting put back in the bottle. Asked what she was most dreading about the England captaincy, her answer came instantly: \u201cPress conferences.\u201d She might well prefer a more limited role, where she can focus purely on the cricket without having to answer difficult questions from journalists \u2013 but that is not the one on offer any more.<\/p>\n

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