Charlotte Edwards: England's best ever captain?
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Charlotte-Marie-Edwards-c50507 may not strike a chord with people like a Naseer Hussain or Kevin Pietersen might, but she has achieved as much for England cricket as her more popular male counterparts.
In fact Charlotte Edwards has done more for women’s cricket and taken them to a level that men’s cricket is yet to achieve.
Charlotte is not only the captain of the England women’s cricket team, but she has won many laurels for her country. It's only because women's cricket doesn't get nearly the same amount of attention as men's cricket or even many other sports that she isn't as well known as some of England's premier male players.
Charlotte made her debut for the England cricket team at the young age of 16. In doing so she became the youngest women player to represent England at that point in time. She played her first Test against New Zealand at Guildford on July 1996. The match progressed like a typical Test and failed to produce a result. Charlotte opened the innings in this very first Test of hers and scored 34 and 31 in the two innings.
She played her first one-day international a year later against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 at Bristol in August 1997. South Africa won the toss in this one and put England in to bat. Charlotte led from the front as her 45 laid the foundation for the English total to reach 227.
The bowlers then took over the responsibility and wrapped up the Proteas batting for 148 and won the match by 79 runs.
Till date Charlotte has played in 18 Tests and 137 ODIs for England. During this period she has scored over a 1000 runs in Tests at an average of 46. She has a highest of 117. In one day internationals she has managed to accrue over 4000 runs at an average of 39. Her highest in this format is a smashing 173 not out along with four hundreds and 33 fifties.
In 1997 itself just a year after her debut Charlotte smashed 12 centuries. Her record one day score of 173 not out came in a World Cup match against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ireland-c751 when she was just 18. The score was a one day record at that point in time. Her maiden Test hundred though took a little time and came against the Indians in 1999.
Injury then played spoil sport for this talented women cricketer as she missed out on an entire year of cricketing action in 2001. But she came back strongly and did not show any signs of a lay off.
She first took over the charge of the England team in 2005 when the then captain Clare Connor was injured.
Upon the retirement of Connor in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/March-c74391 2006, Charlotte took over the reigns of captaincy permanently of the England cricket team.
Under her leadership England have achieved unparallel laurels. Her start wasn’t that great and she took some time to adapt to the role, the results verify that fact. In her first few series she managed to finish third in a quadrangular series in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754. But thereafter there has been no looking back for the English side.
They retained the Ashes in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746, beat the Kiwis 3-1 on a tour and won against India 4-0 at home. At the 2009 World Cup, England started as favourites and ended up doing something that the men’s team in their country is still struggling to manage; England won the World Cup without losing a single match.
Her services to the game got recognition when she was awarded the MBE in June 2009. She also won the women’s’ player if the year award at the annual ICC awards in 2008 at Dubai.
Women’s cricket is slowing finding its place and it’s because of people like Charlotte Edwards.
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