Charlotte Edwards Talks England'sTwenty20 Victory

4 months ago 25th Jun 11:00

^{Women's cricket is well as truly in the spotlight as Charlotte Edwards led England to victory at the Twenty20 World Cup at the weekend.}

^{This victory comes hot on the heels of their World Cup success earlier this year and cements them as the driving force in women's cricket.}

^{I caught up with Charlotte after their Twenty20 triumph to talk about the new image of the women's game and what lies ahead for the squad.}

^{- Congratulations are in order after your World Twenty20 win! Now you have had a couple of days to take it in how do you feel?}

^{Thank you very much. We are obviously delighted - to win an international tournament at the highest level of cricket is really special and something that the team were very proud of. We didn't think that it could get any better than the world cup, but it did on Sunday!}

^{- You went into the tournament having just won the World Cup - what were you expecting to get out of the tournament? Did you think you could win?}

^{I think we believed that we could win it but the Twenty20 format it's a bit more of a lottery in the sense that the teams all become closer together. But we believed that we could win and I guess that we peaked at the right time and that's crucial in that kind of competition.}

^{- How was the final for you? Was it a slightly easier victory than you expected?}

^{Perhaps, but we did bowl and field exceptionally well and I guess the game was slightly easier than we anticipated, though we won a world cup at the end of it and we would take that any day of the week! It was a great performance from the team.}

^{- What do you think has been the driving force behind your recent success?}

^{I think that we have got a great group of players and we are supported really well. We have got some great support staff and we have got a really good team around us and they have all played their part in making us successful.}

^{- What is the feeling within the squad now as to where you can take English women's cricket?}

^{We are all really confident and we are just looking forward to the Ashes this summer. I think it hasn't sunk in with a lot of the team yet. We are really focussed on the next part of the tour, but come July 13th we will be able to reflect on the summer and realise what an achievement it has all been.}

^{- You are now at the forefront of women's cricket and raising the profile of the sport. How does that feel?}

^{When I started playing for England I obviously wanted to be as successful as I could, but it goes further than that now. You realise that you are a role model and that we are promoting the game, and I hope that we can encourage more and more girls to play cricket through our success. That means more to us as a team than a lot of things that we have achieved recently.}

^{- You started playing for England at the age of sixteen. How have attitudes changed towards the women’s game in that time?}

^{It seems remarkable really in the years that I have been playing to finally get some recognition in the last few weeks. To have had some of our matches televised has been fantastic, especially as on those occasions we have played with a high degree of skill and quality.}