Lisa Keightley: Lord's history-maker, ex-Australia international, Perth Scorchers leader, England head coach

Over the course of a 92-cap stint that spanned a decade between 1995 and 2005, she made four ODI hundreds at the top of Australia’s order. At Lord’s in 1998, she became the first female player to score a century at the famous old ground

Two months after Mark Robinson left his role as England head coach, the void at the top of the country’s women’s cricket setup has been filled.

Lisa Keightley has been lured from her dual role with Western Australia and Perth Scorchers – a coaching biography that was also set to include London Spirit, the Hundred franchise based at Lord’s.

The 48-year-old will not now take up her post in the ECB’s new competition, instead turning her hand to revitalising an England side that still sits as the world’s second-ranked team, but also one that has fallen further behind Australia than at any other stage in recent years.

“I think many people involved in women’s cricket were surprised with the result of the Ashes,” Keightley said following her appointment.

“I spoke to one or two Australia players after the series and they were surprised they won the series so convincingly. I think it just shows how testing it is as a competition – one team can get on a bit of a roll and it’s very difficult to fight back from that.

“There are fantastic players in both teams and when you move quickly from format to format it can be pretty tough to reverse that momentum.”

Keightley already has experience within the ECB ranks, having previously served as England Women's first full-time academy head coach between 2009 and 2015.

Since then, she has guided her Scorchers squad to successive Women’s Big Bash finals in 2017 and 2018, only to lose out against Sydney Sixers on both occasions.

In her first season as New South Wales Breakers head coach more than a decade ago in her first post-playing position, she led her team to the domestic 50-over title, following up with another triumph in her second year in charge.

After ending her own illustrious playing career in 2005, her success with New South Wales had led to her appointment as head coach of Australia’s women’s team in 2007, only to step down a year later for personal reasons.

During her tenure with her home national side, Australia won home and away ODI series against New Zealand while drawing 2-2 in an ODI series against England, before losing the one-off Ashes Test. Australia held a 55.5 per cent win rate while Keightley was coach.

Over the course of a 92-cap stint that spanned a decade between 1995 and 2005, she made four ODI hundreds at the top of Australia’s order. Her finest, perhaps, came at Lord’s in 1998; she struck an unbeaten 113 against England, becoming the first female player to score a century at the ground.

In her final knock for Australia – the sole T20 international she ever played, she was dismissed by Katherine Brunt, her new opening bowler, with Clare Connor – her new boss at the ECB – taking the catch.

^{Lisa Keightley scored the first ever century by a female player at Lord's}

With Perth Scorchers, since taking over from Mark Atkinson, who was the team’s inaugural coach in 2015, Keightley has worked with several England players. Brunt, Charlotte Edwards, Rebecca Grundy, Anya Shrubsole, Nat Sciver, Kate Cross and Amy Jones have all worn orange in the Women’s Big Bash.

In all likelihood, Brunt, Shrubsole, Sciver, Cross and Jones will form the crux of Keightley’s first major taskforce as England look to win the Women’s T20 World Cup in February. It is a format in which Keightley is well-versed; her Big Bash experience has given her a handle on how best to nullify some of Australia’s leading lights.

“Within the Perth Scorchers set-up we’ve made plans for most of the Australia players in different franchises so I suppose I’ve good intel on Australia, but you can have all the plans in the world and you’ve still got to execute them.

“Players have got to be comfortable in their roles and in knowing what they’re going to do. I’m confident I’ve got good knowledge and I know the players across the international women’s game well. I believe the knowledge I’ve gained over a good few years of coaching will hold us in good stead.”

The appointment of the Australian, of course, comes with added significance. Ruth Prideaux became England’s first female coach in 1988, but Keightley will be the first woman to take up the role on a full-time basis.

“I’m really proud to be a female coach,” she acknowledged. “In the era that I came through there was a nice pathway for me and you can see the pathway for other female coaches now.

“You’ve got Lydia Greenway, Dani Hazell, Charlotte Edwards and Salliann Briggs all coaching teams in The Hundred, so there are now more opportunities to coach and to coach female teams.

“I think I’ll be the first of many and I hope that going forward more women’s teams will be coached by the best coaches, and that female coaches are putting their hands up for those roles because they’ve got the knowledge, they’ve done the work and they’re the best person for the job.

“I just love what I do and I hope that comes out in the players, and in the environment and culture that I try to create for a player to make sure they can perform at their best. That’s what I love to do and I’m really lucky to be working in a sport that I’m so passionate about.”