Heather Knight hopes this summer season’s T20 World Cup on dwelling soil may be transformative for girls’s cricket within the UK after conceding success in 2017 was not totally capitalised on.
Knight, 35, captained England to victory within the 2017 showpiece occasion at Lord’s and is at present making ready for this 12 months’s T20 match, which begins in 50 days’ time when England tackle Sri Lanka at Edgbaston
“I believe there in all probability wasn’t the construction in place to essentially maximise it in 2017,” Knight instructed BBC Sport.
“Clearly home cricket on this nation wasn’t skilled. We’re in a very completely different place now. There may be that actual scaffolding and it is much more regular to be a girl in sport, which is admittedly thrilling and hopefully we are able to capitalise on it a little bit bit extra.”
Within the 9 years since 2017, Knight has seen the home recreation remodel by the introduction of knowledgeable home construction and The Hundred.
England, nonetheless, haven’t gained an ICC trophy in that point. They reached the finals of the T20 and 50-over editions in 2018 and 2022 respectively however misplaced each to Australia, and had been overwhelmed by South Africa within the semi-finals of each the 2023 and 2025 tournaments.
In 2024, they didn’t make it out of the T20 World Cup group stage after a defeat by West Indies however Knight hopes a current revamp to the present county construction will repay.
“I believe we have seen that on this nation over the previous couple of years how funding and the way having the proper constructions, [and] The Hundred, the home set-up is in a extremely great spot now. So for those who get that proper, the remaining will observe,” Knight says.
“I believe what it [2017] did do was change perceptions of what girls’s cricket might be if it was completed correctly, if it was funded correctly.”
The England and Wales Cricket Board’s Head of Strategic Progress, Gemma Barton, acknowledges the necessity to grasp the momentum of being hosts.
“We aren’t ready till the match to seek out out if England win to see whether or not we are able to create legacy. From that time [2017] onwards, we’ve got then began to see these foundations develop and that base construct,” she defined.
“Final 12 months, 24,000 girls’s fixtures had been held throughout England and Wales. In order that progress has taken its time, however now we’re reaping the rewards of these nice foundations from that technique.”
