Knight’s sacking exposes England’s failure to plan captaincy succession | Raf Nicholson

They say in cricket that one brings two: something that has proved true in the case of the England and Wales Cricket Board’s post-Ashes review. On Friday, Jon Lewis was sacked as head coach and, 24 hours later, Heather Knight followed him out of the door.

A 16-0 error-strewn Ashes whitewash required big change and the ECB has certainly delivered on that score. Lewis was always unlikely to survive after his infamous “Bondi-to-Coogee” interview, during which he blamed the defeat on Australia’s sunnier climes, made him a laughing stock. But firing Knight is a far more radical step – an admission that, despite the insistence to the contrary of Clare Connor, the managing director of women’s cricket, the ECB’s review has indeed uncovered evidence of a poor team culture. Why else would they end Knight’s reign at a point when she is a mere 15 months away from fulfilling her long-stated ambition of leading her country in a home T20 World Cup?

And so a nine-year captaincy tenure (will any future England Women’s captain repeat that feat?) comes to an ignominious end. Recent poor results aside, Knight’s are big shoes to fill. After her first series at the helm, against Pakistan in July 2016, she told me that the worst part of being captain was “being dragged to do media and not being able to enjoy the celebrations straight away”.

From that initial reluctance, she grew into one of women’s cricket’s best advocates, serving as vice-chair of the Professional Cricketers’ Association and as part of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Association’s player advisory group, speaking out on issues from equal pay to the need for more women’s Tests. And of course there was that one unforgettable day at Lord’s when England triumphed in the 2017 World Cup final.

Knight’s heavyweight status has been such that the ECB has continually sidestepped the issue of succession planning. There are no candidates to be England captain who are: a) guaranteed a place in all three formats, which rules out Charlie Dean, Tammy Beaumont and Kate Cross; b) want the job, which rules out Amy Jones and Danni Wyatt-Hodge; and c) have demonstrated they can handle the responsibility and pressure which come with the role, which rules out Knight’s official deputy, Nat Sciver-Brunt. The fact that Sciver-Brunt retained the vice-captaincy even after overseeing a total breakdown of team discipline during the 2022 Commonwealth Games shows just how long England have been ducking the succession issue.

This wider failing among the leadership team to make tough calls is now coming home to roost at the worst possible time. England can probably already kiss goodbye to any chances of lifting this year’s 50-over World Cup in India – but there is a bigger problem looming on the horizon. The ECB is banking on that home T20 World Cup to attract record crowds, visibility and legacies for the women’s game. And yet with 15 months to go, England find themselves rudderless and – as Kate Cross admitted recently – having lost the fans. Without some swift action, it could prove a disaster – one for which the ECB would only have itself to blame.

Where do England go from here? There is one obvious candidate to succeed Lewis: Charlotte Edwards. She has already as good as said she will be applying for the post. It’s fortunate, too, that she is the type of coach who is up for a challenge, because picking up a team from the dregs of 16-0 is going to be just that.

It will also be a long-term project. Perhaps it begins with an interim, split captaincy, with Beaumont doing the role in ODIs and Tests while possible successors are tried out in the T20 format. No doubt the new coach will have the final say, but whoever is named captain will have to deal with the fact that her predecessor will still be present in the dressing room – Knight has said she intends to continue in the ranks. After such a long period at the helm, that could be a fascinating dynamic.

Crucially, England have eight weeks until they face West Indies: eight weeks to appoint a coach, name a new captain and try to show they are serious about cultural change.