Fran Wilson: "I'd always wanted to get a catch like that on TV"

NICK FRIEND: A catch, of course, is a spec in time. It is inconsequential in a summer; its context may well be forgotten – or outdone – by the end of a mammoth couple of months. But the image is there for eternity

Fran Wilson does this all the time. At least, that’s what her teammates say.

Leaping to her left, arms akimbo, a dolphin throwing itself up for air before splashing back down from whence it came. She bent into a crescent – it was only a split-second; but when she landed, she had returned to earth with ball in hand.

As is society’s wont, the catch quickly went viral. Hayley Matthews was the batsman dismissed – a fine player in her own right, but nothing more than collateral damage as Wilson’s England teammates piled on top of a fine athlete, whose international career had – until then – been a stunted, flitting, skittish endeavour.

Something like this, however, can be the making of an international cricketer; in one fell swoop, Wilson flung herself into the eyes of short-clip fiends.

Wilson is nothing if not softly spoken; she certainly isn’t one to hog the limelight. In a sense, there is almost a slight discomfort in her voice as she discusses her moment.

“My dad asked me how I did it,” she laughs. “I just jumped. It is funny because people keep coming up to me and telling me that I had a really good game. Well, I did something for three seconds.”

👀 FRAN WILSON 👏pic.twitter.com/qWEbuZFcgx

— The Cricketer (@TheCricketerMag) June 13, 2019

Wilson, though, is well-aware of the wider importance of a moment like that. It seems almost absurd that the notion of perception has to be debated, even after the broken records of the 2017 World Cup, when an enormous barrier was broken and the women’s game well and truly cracked the mainstream.

But, as the 27-year-old batsman reflects, there is a rare significance to the athleticism of her catch. Many tweeted immediately, using the clip to rally against the nameless trolls inhabiting the social network universe.

“It is really nice for it to have happened on TV,” Wilson admitted – not with a hint of arrogance, but with a firm understanding of what it means to have such a moment cast worldwide.

“People take great catches all over the world and in county cricket, but when it’s not on TV. I guess I’m the lucky one.

“I actually said to Tammy Beaumont pretty quickly: ‘Ah Tammy, I’ve always wanted to get one on TV.’

“It is really good for the sport for something like that to happen. From the outside looking in, if someone scores a hundred, it is a big reel of highlights, but when someone takes a good catch, it is something that can get replayed and replayed really easily.

“It is really nice to have it out there now. It has happened now, so nobody can take it away.”

^{Wilson made 91 against Australia in a warmup game for the Ashes tourists last week}

“I was so glad it was on TV,” her captain, Heather Knight, added. Wilson took another similar catch weeks earlier in a warmup game, though that game was not televised. Knight asserts – against Wilson’s view – that Sky’s version was the better catch.

“It’s a clip that people can watch and be amazed by and kids can imitate,” the skipper explained. “I’ve heard loads of people saying how unreal it was. People see it, people can show their mates, people retweet and like it.

“I saw a few people tweeting that the next time people doubt the skill levels of the women’s game, they will have this one in the bank to show them. I’m chuffed for Fran as well. She hasn’t had a huge amount of opportunity this summer, but I think she’s one of the best fielders in the world.”

A catch, of course, is a spec in time. It is inconsequential in a summer; it only has a certain relevance within its own game. Its context may well be forgotten – or outdone – by the end of a mammoth couple of months. But the image is there for eternity.

There is a giant beast of a summer waiting in the wings, flying over the horizons; the Australians are here, prowling through their paces, preparing themselves for a series they currently have firmly in their grip.

The West Indian precursor failed to provide any of the competition that neutrals – and, perhaps, England – would have craved. As preparation goes, this was one-sided, brutal, carnage. But as Wilson is at pains to highlight, when you are pushing for the status of the world’s best team, you play against your own standards - not those of anyone else. Her catch, therefore, files into that category.

“It’s nice because it’s a marker,” she adds. “The series against the West Indies was very one-sided and a lot of people have said that the West Indies were poor. But actually, little things like that show that we have been really very good and have played well.

“All you can do is play against what’s in front of you and do the best you possibly can.”

For Wilson, it is an adage that has become all-important. After being left out of England’s squads for their winter tours, it became her cue for a change: she left Middlesex for Division One cricket with Kent. Even after she ultimately found herself called up for the World T20 in the Caribbean as cover for Katherine Brunt, it would be an eye-opening time.

^{Wilson has previous when it comes to spectacular catches...}

Few sides can be as cohesive as this England team; they have moved together as a unit, becoming world champions, living the biggest summer of their lives under one collective roof. Falling out of that sphere, as Wilson did, is some shake-up.

“It’s really hard being told you’re not going to be part of a group that is so close-knit,” she admits. “You become part of what is almost like a very dysfunctional family.

“Being left out of the squad is really hard, especially when you feel such a connection to each member of that group.

“That is where it is important – I realised – to have that extra network outside of your cricket. I have always had friends outside of cricket, but it is really important to make sure you are working at those relationships and friendships as well, because that’s what you fall back on when all your mates go off to different places without you.”

She ended up traveling through New Zealand with friends from her university days, turning down a Big Bash offer in the process.

“I just knew that I needed a bit of a break and a winter at home training really hard,” she confesses of her decision to turn down a place in one of women’s cricket’s premier competitions.

It was, ultimately, a call that came with a more mature outlook on cricket’s place in one’s life, even in that of a World Cup winner. If it is true that absence makes the heart grow fonder, then it is also the case that cricket does not have to be the extent of one’s existence.

“Being out of the side does also give you a perspective that life is bigger than cricket,” Wilson reflects. It is undoubtedly a chain of events that has benefited her. She made 91 at better than a run-a-ball in a practice match for the England Academy against Australia’s attack on Friday.

“I’m not saying it made me realise I didn’t love it, but it has given me a far better perspective on things and has made me enjoy playing international cricket a bit more.

“I think before, there were probably times where I didn’t enjoy it as much as I should have done. Now, coming back into the fold, you are going to have those times when you feel uncomfortable, but I feel in a much better space to deal with that now.”

That catch can only have helped.