This is what it means for us to go pro

NICK FRIEND: That 25 domestic cricketers are now on retainers ahead of full-time professional deals come October is a huge step for the women's game. A group of them open up on their pride, difficult journeys and a fulfilment of lifelong dreams

For Danni Warren, the magnitude of it all hit home as she put the phone down.

For Emma Lamb, the hardest part of the last month has been keeping the news among close family.

For Alex Hartley, it means once again calling herself a professional cricketer after the disappointment of losing her central contract.

For Marie Kelly, it is reward for an anthology of groundwork, an opportunity to see quite how far she can take her game.

For Georgia Adams, a reminder that it is not too late to break into a national setup she feared had passed her by.

For Tash Farrant, a chance to show what she has learnt in the 16 months since she was let go by England.

Thursday’s announcement was a landmark moment: for the first time, domestic women’s cricket in England has fully contracted professionals. The 25 players listed, spread across eight newly created regional hubs, each represent the dawn of a new era – actions rather than words during a period of unprecedented uncertainty.

For the time being, these are only retainers – a slight modification to what this summer was meant to bring. In October, they will become full contracts, with 15 others also signing deals, taking the overall number to 40, as was laid out in the ECB’s investment plans for the women’s game in 2019.

Nevertheless, this remains a hugely significant moment. For the governing body, it is a signal of its commitment and ambition at a time when the women’s game has needed reassurance. For Lisa Keightley and the national side, it is a boost to the strength in depth of the player pool, especially as Australia continue to raise the bar. For the individuals involved, it is some recompense for years of considerable graft, a new beginning that many never dared believe might come.

“It sounds a bit dramatic but it’s not just career-changing, it’s life-changing,” says Warren, the inaugural director of cricket at the new London and East hub. “The girls have been putting things on hold or having to make different decisions in the last few years.

“Now, we are able to give them the freedom and say: ‘We support you; this is here, this is what we can offer you and we will do our best to help you achieve what you want to achieve.’”

Players learned of their offers through phone calls from their directors: Warren admits she “was as excited as the girls” as she broke the news to them.

It is a common theme. Adams recalls being rendered “speechless”. Her call came out of the blue from Adam Carty, Warren’s equivalent at the South Central hub, only a couple of days after it was revealed in May during a video conference between more than 300 domestic players and senior ECB figures that the plans would be going ahead. Until then, there had been growing disquiet among some at what lay in store for this summer, with The Hundred’s postponement a financial setback.

“I didn’t know what to say,” she laughs. “I didn’t want to sound sad about it, but it just came as such a shock. I really wasn’t expecting it but, at the same time, I was so over the moon and so pleased to finally be able to say that I’m a professional cricketer, which still feels strange now.”

The daughter of former Sussex captain Chris Adams, the professionalism of the men’s game was all she knew as a child, practising on the Hove outfield. It was Clare Connor who nudged her father to push her towards county trials. “The culture that I grew up in from a young age was seeing the men training every single day and the gym stuff,” she explains. “I think that’s where my work ethic and dedication come from.” Her time at Loughborough University then gave her a taste for “what it was like to be a pro cricketer without the money”. In effect, that approach has stayed the same – until now.

“Ever since then, I’ve been really committed to all aspects of the game, as well as my gym and nutrition side of things. From what I’ve been doing for the last two years anyway – I’ve been working full-time and still managing to train every day. It’s nice to finally get a bit of reward for all the hard work I’ve put in.”

Last year, Adams became Sussex Women’s youngest player to reach the landmark of 100 senior appearances for the county. Everything she has done has been with this moment in mind.

“Before, I’ve always just been captain of Sussex,” she adds, reflecting on what it feels like to finally call herself a professional cricketer. The first call she made after putting the phone down to Carty was to her father, a pro himself for two decades. It takes a parent to appreciate all that their child has given to a lifelong dream. “He was really chuffed. He was like: ‘I’m so unbelievably proud.”

She recalls, too, the struggle that came with losing her spot in the England Academy and the pride in her subsequent determination to keep going with her game. Adams had been part of the system for three years when she was let go; the squad she left behind was younger. She wondered whether her time had come and gone.

“It’s that hurt and the pain,” she remembers of a now different time. Hartley knows that better than most. The 26-year-old – a veteran of 32 international caps – has experienced the fall from the England bubble into an abyss without the security of a contract or the identity of an England cricketer.

She hopes that her presence among this group can show others that a genuine career path now exists, that it is no longer a case of all or nothing.

“It’s just nice to know for the other girls that once you’ve played international cricket and you dip in a bit of form and you lose that opportunity, it’s not the end of the road anymore,” she explains.

“People can look at me and say: ‘Alex is still a professional cricketer, albeit not for England.’ They can strive to do that. If they lose their England contract or don’t quite make it, there is scope for other opportunities. The women’s game has never had that before and it is a fantastic opportunity. Yes, the money is not life-changing but it’s better than a kick in the teeth.”

^{Issy Wong is one of the 25 players to have been awarded a retainer contract}

The Cricketer understands that retainers will be worth £1,000 per month, with full-time deals more valuable at £18,000 per year.

Farrant has a similar tale to tell. She was released from her central contract at the start of 2019, a move that took her by surprise. She has opted to join Richard Bedbrook’s South East hub, given its affiliation with Kent, for whom she first played as an eight-year-old.

The left-arm seamer also had an offer on the table from the East Midlands franchise: she has a home in Loughborough from her days as part of the England setup, while she has spent the last year as head of girls’ cricket at Trent College in Nottingham.

“The decision I’ve made is more uprooting for my life, but it will definitely benefit me in the long run,” she says. It has already been agreed that Kent and Surrey will assist in her desire to continue her coaching work, while she is moving in with her brother, who lives in London.

Farrant’s road has not been easy. She took a number of months away from the sport after being dropped, before having to set up her own training and benefiting from the kindness of others who would give her practice sessions free of charge.

It is an experience that has helped her; she feels a more well-rounded person for it, not to mention a better cricketer.

“I was in the academy when I was 14 and from there it was just England, England, England,” she remembers. “When it all came crashing down, my whole world was gone.

“But now I’ve had time out of it – I’ve done the coaching, I’ve had to do things for myself, which I didn’t before. That sounds really bad, but you go from having everything all set up for you. It’s also made me learn that a cricket-life balance is really important. Having your out of cricket stuff is as important as your cricket. If you’re in a better place, you’re only going to get better.

“This is exactly what the women’s game needed. I’ve been waiting for this ever since I lost my England contract, to be honest. For me, it’s incredible. I have ambitions to play cricket for England again, but I’ve seen life outside of England Cricket now. Just to be a professional cricketer is just so exciting. The main thing I’ve missed is being part of a team. That’s the one thing that I’ve missed the most.

“When you’re in it, you’re living the best life. You’re in a stable financial situation, you’re part of a team. But as soon as you go out of it, it’s completely different. I think it has been really hard for domestic players.

“I don’t want to be too controversial, but women domestic cricketers are so incredible in that they just get on with it. They sort out their own training, they do all their fitness. It would have been so easy just to give it up. I think the girls have just been waiting for this regional stuff to happen and working towards it.”

Adams recalls her own memories of falling out of the setup before having reached the ultimate goal of international exposure. “You’re not in the academy, you’re out of the pathway, you’re probably not going to play for England,” she reminisces. “I don’t know whether it’s just my love of cricket, but there was always something that kept me going. I wasn’t ready to let it go yet or to have any ‘what ifs’.

“I didn’t want to just become a county cricketer and not train and not dedicate myself to being as good as I can be. If you’d said two or three years ago that domestic cricket was going to go professional, I’d have laughed. I guess now, I’m just chuffed that I did keep working at it.

“I know now that should I never play for England, I’ll have had an amazing career and I’ll have been really lucky and privileged. I’ll have no regrets. That’s the one big thing that I said to myself: I want to push myself and challenge myself to be the best cricketer that I can be. If I’m not good enough to play for England, then be satisfied with where you get to.”

The thought process has been similar for Kelly, the 24-year-old who skippered Warwickshire to Vitality T20 County Cup glory last year and was once part of the England Under-19 structure.

“I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet,” she confesses. “When it was publicly announced, it started to hit home a little bit more then. As soon as we start training together, I think it will really sink in. There has been so much hard work put in over the years, all the groundwork that goes in. I knew that a regional system would happen eventually, but I didn’t think it would happen now.”

She thinks back to her own time spent at Loughborough University, wondering through her second year which path she should look to follow – whether a career in cricket was anything more than a pipedream. “I did think that maybe this wasn’t going to happen for me or in my lifetime,” she adds. “And then the KSL kicked off, so there were still options to be paid to play, but never anything that I thought I could achieve as a full-time player.”

Kelly, Farrant and Adams have supplemented playing with coaching roles, which they still hope to keep up in some capacity.

Adams works at Brighton Aldridge Community Academy, where she assists her county head coach Alexia Walker, who is the school’s director of cricket.

Kelly, whose twin sister Sian coaches Argentina’s women’s team, is head of girls’ cricket at Complete Cricket, a coaching company based in the Midlands.

For Farrant, life at Trent College allowed her to work at her own game with Scott Boswell, the former Leicestershire and Northamptonshire seamer and now an ECB Level Four coach. She calls him the “Bowling Gandhi”, such has been the value of his wisdom for her own development.

^{Tash Farrant made her England debut as a 17-year-old}

In Hartley’s case, the last year has been something of a whirlwind. The left-arm spinner is the best known of the 25 contract-holders – a World Cup winner, increasingly prominent pundit and co-host of a popular podcast with England seamer and close friend Kate Cross.

When she spoke candidly to The Cricketer back in October, she was doing so from her lowest ebb. “I’m not a professional athlete anymore,” she said. “You don’t really have a reason to get up in the morning.”

By her own admission, she was struggling. She questioned, too, whether she would even want to be a beneficiary of a domestic contract. She felt without an identity and embarrassed, with cricket far from the front of her mind.

Speaking now, however, she is in a far better place: happier in herself, with a healthier outlook on both sport and her own sense of meaning.

“It’s just crazy how much my life has changed from October,” she says. “There were days when I couldn’t even get out of bed, I couldn’t leave the house. I just didn’t understand where my life was going or what direction I was taking. All of a sudden, I had no purpose.

“The podcast with Crossy has taken off and it has gone further than either of us ever thought. The first episode had about 40 listeners and now we’ve got 2,000 people downloading it. And then, I went travelling to America and to Australia for the T20 World Cup and came back to a global pandemic. It has been a crazy 10 months, but my mental health is stable again and I’m itching to play cricket.

“I’ve always played cricket because I enjoyed it. Yes, I lost my England contract but that’s not going to stop me enjoying playing cricket. Now I know that I can just relax a little bit and start again from the beginning and look to inspire young girls and be a role model, I’m just so much more comfortable with where I’m at.”

There is a glowing quality to Hartley’s expression as she talks about life once more as a professional athlete. Her passion for cricket, she insists, has been fully rekindled, having reminded herself during her time on the sidelines quite why she had first fallen in love with the game.

“It feels like it’s been a lifetime since I’ve been a professional cricketer,” she admits, “and I’ve really enjoyed myself. I’ve struggled with mental health, I’ve got over the other side of that, learnt how to cope with it, done all my media work and really enjoyed that – it’s something I want to carry on with. For me, it’s going to be the balance of playing professional cricket and being a role model and trying to improve other life skills for when this time ends again – and I’ve learnt that it doesn’t last forever.

“I genuinely believe that I’m good enough to play for England again one day. If that happens, amazing. I will take that opportunity – and in the past, I thought I wouldn’t. If they asked me in a few months if I want to play, of course I do. But I’ll never have the same mindset that I had in the past that it’s the be-all-and-end-all. Because it’s not. It’s a game of cricket. I played because I loved it.

“And I’ve gone back to the game now because I missed it and I realised how much the game meant to me. I’m always going to have a different outlook on the game of cricket. I think things happen for a reason, and I think it’s given me a much better outlook on life.”

If there is a niggling frustration at the moment, it is one laced in irony. As professional athletes, they have been unable even to practise ever since signing their retainer deals – in line with the government’s regulations around elite sportspeople returning to training in the coronavirus environment.

Hartley, for one, has taken part in just a single net since last summer. Ordinarily, Adams would make the most of her coaching facilities at Brighton Aldridge to hit some balls. Farrant is hopeful that in the near future, her arrangement with her South East hub might allow her some training time at The Kia Oval.

In the meantime, however, the players have been restricted to carrying out strength and conditioning work, while completing a series of online modules relating to anti-corruption and anti-doping – all part of learning the professional cricketer life. Irritating though the current predicament may be, it comes with this new territory.

As Warren explains: “We are fully respectful of the guidance. We can’t fight for this long to put women’s cricket in the elite sphere to now turn around and say that it doesn’t suit us. We have professional cricketers, so we are going to treat them like professional cricketers. They deserve a professional environment.”

Emma Lamb has already returned to training. She is one of five of the contract recipients also in possession of England rookie deals – the others being Linsey Smith, Bryony Smith, Alice Davidson-Richards and Sophia Dunkley – and was among a group of 24 players called upon ahead of the international summer, which could still feature a tri-series with India and South Africa in September.

For the 22-year-old, whose brother Danny plays for Lancashire, this represents the latest step on an increasingly exciting path. During her time at Edge Hill University, she applied to study for a PGCE in primary school teaching, only to defer it when her rookie contract came though. It is a reminder once more of the enormous difference that professionalisation will make and the doors it will open.

“Because the PGCE is a full-time thing, I wouldn’t have been able to play and train properly,” she says. “It would have been a bit of a setback in my cricket career, but it would have had to be done if I hadn’t had anything behind me.

“There are a lot of girls who are very good county players, but they’ve not been able to commit fully and potentially become better players because they’re trying to earn a living. I know a lot of players in county cricket who have gone through that. It’s exciting for younger players as well because they can strive towards this and actually give it a good shot.”

Amazing moment in these women’s lives ...... could not be prouder of you @GeorgiaAdams01 on achieving the goal of becoming a pro cricketer ..... all that hard work paying off , just the beginning xx #Number1 https://t.co/OkwbBIlfby

— Chris Adams (@grizz598) June 25, 2020

One word frequently crops up in each of these conversations: gains. There is a collective enthusiasm at the prospect of exponential improvement.

“You think of anyone who was involved in the initial professionalisation in other countries of the women’s game,” Warren says. “We saw it when the England players were first given their central contracts. There are always going to be some huge gains made straight away because players can now focus on something.

“They can spend the time, recover well, not be worried about having to be here or there and training at 6.30pm but knowing you need to get around the North Circular. There’s no doubt that we’re going to see some huge gains from the players who put the effort in, and that’s why we’re doing it.

“When you can focus on one thing, you’re always going to get a greater result than if you’re trying to do three things as well as you can.”

For Adams and Kelly, it is the thought of what their games might look like without having to juggle multiple commitments, an opportunity to push on and see, quite simply, how good they can become. Captains at their respective counties, this is a chance, too, to balance leadership roles with the development of their own cricket.

And then there are the youngsters: the likes of Issy Wong, the highly rated seamer who will join Kelly – her county captain – and director of cricket Laura MacLeod at the West Midlands hub. There is a sense of intrigue at what could be achieved by those in her position – schoolgirls with a fresh career path to consider. Sophie Ecclestone, now the world’s top-ranked T20I bowler, is one of few examples of an English teenager signing a professional contract. Not all will enjoy her success, but she stands as a strong blueprint for what is attainable.

Farrant was another; she made her T20I debut at 17. Her first car was a sponsored Kia Sportage and she was on an England deal while still at school. The value of this new scheme, she believes, is in creating a clearer path for aspiring youngsters to follow. She describes it as a “stepping stone” with the capacity to squeeze the gap between domestic and international cricket.

“If you think of the success we’ve had over recent years without having much training, I just think of how exciting this is,” Kelly enthuses. “I think the timing is perfect for someone like Issy (Wong). She hasn’t had to make the difficult decisions of thinking about a different career. She can put all her energy and focus into being the best cricketer she can be.

“I’m really excited just to train as a cricketer by being able to train more. I love training. I never want to leave the nets. I’m always asking to bat more. To be able to do that as my job now, I’m really excited to be able to work on loads of areas as my job and see where that takes me. It has made playing for England a possibility again. It was kind of a closed door for me before, I think.”

Hartley adds: “There are two sides of it. There are a few girls who are my age who have dreamt of this moment since they were kids and they’ve now been given this opportunity to be professional athletes. Their dream has become a reality and now they can push for that place if they want to.

“And then there are the younger girls who have the opportunity to finish school and go straight into a professional career. It just gives women and girls a completely new career path if that’s what they want to go down.”

In Adams’ case, she is well aware of where she has benefited to this point: working at a terrific facility alongside her own head coach has meant that settling in for a batch of throwdowns has rarely been an issue. Likewise, she has trained at Seaford College, where her father is head of cricket. For many others, resources have not been so straightforward.

“I’m so pleased for everyone who’s been given these contracts because I know how many girls have had to find local parks to do their running sessions or go down to the local community nets to get their bowling workloads,” she says.

“I think girls have just always done it for the love and passion of the game because there’s never been monetary reward from it. It’s never really been an option. What you do see in the women’s game from someone like myself is that we do it because we love it and we want to push ourselves and challenge ourselves and keep getting better.”

Adams, who is keen for Charlotte Edwards to be handed the hub’s lead coaching role, confesses as well that she was “really worried” when the domestic contract initiative was first announced.

In the last decade, only one female player has made an England debut past the age of 25 – Sonia Odedra in her solitary Test appearance against India in 2014 as a 26-year-old.

She feared that the deals might represent an opportunity to seek out a crop of young talent worth pursuing with the future in mind, rather than rewarding those who have reached their mid-20s without catching an international break.

Yet, Warren stresses that she was never given any directive from above in her selection process and that those chosen “were the right people to be considered”. Her trio of retainers were handed to Cordelia Griffith, 24, Amara Carr, 26, and Naomi Dattani, 26.

Age, she insists, was no factor. “We have to realise that as an amateur sport, we have almost played things on fast-forward,” she explains. “We’ve had players come in incredibly young and without a large amount of cricketing or world experience. For me, it was never a question of discounting somebody because they’ve been around for longer. They deserve the opportunity that they get.

^{Georgia Adams grew up watching Sussex - captained by her father - training at Hove}

“Every single one of the players that have been signed, it’s with a long-term vision. There’s a lot of cricket left in all of these players and there’s a lot of potential in every one of them to play at the next level and push on.”

Adams adds: “It’s interesting because in the men’s game, most players come into their prime at 27 or 28. I do feel like there has been this culture within the women’s game that if you’ve not broken into the England setup before you’re 22, you’ll struggle.”

Hartley’s England debut came at that age in an ODI against Pakistan in 2016. She is one of seven retainer-holders with England experience, but none of the others are as established as a taker of 42 international wickets. Beth Langston, Linsey Smith, Bryony Smith, Farrant, Davidson-Richards and Dunkley have all also featured at the top level.

For Hartley then, this is a chance “to inspire the next generation of girls”. She is not the oldest of the intake – that tag belongs to batsman Eve Jones, who turns 28 in August, but her experience gives her a unique wisdom on this subject.

“Without the likes of Katherine Brunt, Jenny Gunn, Clare Connor and Danni Hazell, none of this would have been possible,” she stresses. “It wouldn’t have been an option. We owe a lot to the older generation of women’s cricketers – they put in the hard work, put in the hours, played for free, they have been an inspiration for people like me.

“Yes, a tiny part of me wishes I was ten years younger and could start again and be a professional straight from school, but these things happen for a reason.”

Warren reflects similarly. She is still coming to terms with her own role – thus far, procurement, partnership building and commercialisation have been on the agenda, all new learnings for a former seamer who previously was Middlesex’s head of women’s cricket. She highlights one side effect of the new structure – a chance for more coaches to enter the women’s game. Building her team of support staff is another topic on the current agenda.

She recalls coaching Dattani over a decade ago at under-13 level, while also playing in the same club side together as recently as last year. There is an audible pride in what her former protégée has achieved and also in the other “incredibly deserving names” whose journeys as amateurs have reached this juncture.

Is there, though, a tinge of regret that none of these opportunities existed when Warren herself, part of the previous generation listed by Hartley, was coming onto the scene?

The answer comes pensively. She has been asked the question before, when Middlesex Women played their first ever game at Lord’s just two years after she had ended her own playing career.

“Was I gutted I wasn’t out there playing? I’d never really thought about it because I was just so pleased that we’d put it on and to be able to be a part of the day,” she says.

“It’s very similar to this. For anyone that played in the amateur era, I don’t think there’d be many people who wouldn’t turn around and say that it would’ve been amazing to have had this opportunity, but we played in a great time. It was a different time, but the cricket was good quality, it was challenging and there were some brilliant people around.

“That was a different era and I’m really pleased to be part of this and to look at players who I helped along the way in the game. If I can play some small part in making a success of this structure, I think my playing career will be very quickly forgotten.”

In a difficult, uncertain period, here lies a rare piece of positive news: come October, the domestic women’s game will have 40 full-time professionals. By no means the end goal, it represents a significant start.

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