One of England’s greatest rivals who gave it everything is how Katherine Sciver-Brunt wants to be remembered.
Cyver-Brunt, the most successful bowler in English women’s cricket, called time on his international career After 19 years on Friday, she was ruled out of the home women’s Ashes series starting next month. In fact, she would have been available for selection only in the T20 leg of the multi-format series, having announced her Test retirement almost a year ago and played her last ODI during South Africa’s tour of England at Northampton last year. july.
She never officially announced her retirement from the 50-over format, not wanting to relive the experience of her Test ouster only to have to do it again when she was completely ruled out. But, also retired from regional cricket before this season and announced that February’s T20 World Cup in South Africa would be his last, and after noting that he was asked in “every interview” recently that his What is there left to achieve? At times, Siever-Brunt has made peace with the fact that some players end their careers on a massive on-field high.
For now the Women’s Hundred is in August and, speaking at a recent media event for a tournament that marks the vast changes she has experienced in a long and decorated career, Sciver-Brunt was able to reflect on Was able how she wanted to leave. international forum.
“I would love to be remembered as one of England’s greatest ever competitors,” Sciver-Brunt told ESPNcricinfo. “And I would like people to think that I was very consistent, that I gave everything I had in the way I played and the way I went about it, that I was a fighter … just do that Was doing what I had to do and giving it everything I was doing.” is the most important.
“I think every cricketer who has played a long career or played international cricket probably wants to go out with a bang. That’s probably the thing that is the best thing, I think, sits in your mind. You have to fight with yourself is this important or does it matter because you just hope people remember the legacy you left, or the things you did, or how good you were in your career when you Was at my best. For me that bit is important. That’s not me’. We’ve had to compromise ourselves that going out with a bang is not important. What’s important is what I’ve done and how I contribute, for England to play or win the match.”
The rise of international franchise cricket for women has been one of the biggest positives in Siever-Brunt’s career, which began as a Test against New Zealand in 2004 And this included 267 international matches during which he took a total of 335 wickets across all formats. His 170 wickets in ODIs and 114 wickets in T20Is were both record hauls for his country and he scored 51 runs in 14 Tests.
Sciver-Brunt was not picked at the inaugural WPL auction, where his wife and England teammate Nat was the joint-highest-earning overseas pick, going to the Mumbai Indians for £320,000.
“The money thrown at the WPL is a life changing amount for a lot of girls and women within our game and hopefully it can only get bigger and bigger and encourage all other franchises to increase their salaries,” Katherine Sciver-Brunt said. “This creates, not only when you are playing, but enough protection to protect your life outside of the game, going forward if you find yourself juggling with multiple options.
“It’s an absolutely mind-blowing change and one that will hopefully continue to grow year on year and obviously have an impact on participation and diversity in sport.”
But the rise of the women’s game has been overwhelming at times, as both Sciver-Brunts first had their hands full last year when they took time off from the game shortly after a disappointing defeat to England. Finished fourth in his home Commonwealth Games. Nett’s absence from the public for reasons of mental health and well-being became more noticeable when he had to leave the England training camp after a few days. Cather says she took time off for the same reasons, but being older and more experienced, the England team convened in Durham ahead of the September tour of India, as she felt the same guilt for “letting people down”. didn’t happen
Katherine Sciver-Brunt recalled, “I just decided not to go on tour, I couldn’t persuade him to stay.” “I’m at that point and I think there’s a maturity in my life where I know that my being there is actually less helpful to him, because I’m there but I’m not there mentally, whereas he’s just helping people.” Could see – a little down and not the fact that staying back would help them more.
“We were both going through a difficult time. Our schedule that year was incredibly busy, in fact a bit unprecedented when I started playing, and it will certainly be the future of cricket that needs to be managed very carefully.” It just went to show what can happen if we have to do too much… I think it gave the ECB the necessary knowledge about scheduling and how best to go about moving forward and How to get the best out of the best players. So it was good for everybody.”
He said, “It is very difficult to live without a suitcase for 11 months of the year.” “Trying to have a career or a family outside of cricket is non-existent. Also just the touring life and just going over and over without that grieving period, what I call it if you will, because you missed the Commonwealth Games. Like lose in a tournament and you end up where you didn’t expect to finish at all, there’s no time to recover from it. Two days in and you’re off to the next tournament. It’s stuff like , you just carry on with it. It’s up to the point where you take a break in September because you’ve had enough, but then it limits your opportunity to make money in other ways because you can’t do that.
“There are always ups and downs, right? It’s about learning from them because it’s new to us now. We’re learning how to face it and get the most out of ourselves and for our country Have to play your best cricket.”
Just as she always expresses her desire to do her best for her country, Katherine Sciver-Brunt has made no secret of the fact that she expects the same from her team-mates. During what proved to be his last match for England, the T20 World Cup semi-final loss to South Africa, he was criticized by former team-mate Alex Hartley commentating on the match for BBC Test Match Special, when he punched the ground and Pointed to one. teammates amid fielding errors. Siever-Brunt also received an official reprimand and one demerit point for using an audible obscenity when she dropped a catch off Deepti Sharma during England’s Commonwealth Games semi-final loss to India.
“At the end of the day, this is international cricket,” says Sciver-Brunt. “It’s not village cricket, it’s club cricket, which I grew up playing in Yorkshire, which was very wild and probably where I learned most of my moves, you know, moving moves. But as I say Yeah, it’s international cricket and it’s serious. It’s professional, we get paid to do it. But when you’re out there and you’re expressing yourself and whatever you have, He gives completely, so all your emotions are raw.
“Unless you’ve been there doing what we do, you can’t possibly imagine what it feels like and what it takes to be the person that we do. And with that comes a little bit of vulnerability and not being able to have some emotions to control, especially if you’re my type. We’re not all quite killer-like and patient like Natalie. We’re all a little red-haze and warrior like me. So I say 99 % of the time I can control it and sometimes it’s in a passionate way, never in a malicious way and my team mates know that and that’s the most important thing.
“Is it understood by the wider world that it’s a different kettle of fish altogether and people will always have their own comments. But as long as my heart is in the right place and my team-mates know what it is And where it comes from is all that matters.”
