Age of opportunity: The England door is ajar for a generation who thought the ship had sailed

NICK FRIEND: Ruth Lupton was 30 when she made her international debut in 1995; Sonia Odedra was 26 on her Test bow in 2014. Every debutante over the last seven years has been younger. The new domestic structure, though, might just change that

These days, Ruth Lupton is an honorary professor at the University of Manchester, specialising in poverty, inequality, education and neighbourhoods. She spends her time writing and researching. It is a surprise, therefore, when she finds an email in her inbox from The Cricketer.

Cricket came at a different time in her life: for the most part, as an opener for Surrey after spending five years with Lancashire and Cheshire, and - briefly - with England. A single Test against New Zealand, where she was dismissed without scoring in her solitary innings, and two ODIs in the European Championship against Denmark and Ireland account for her international career.

She was 30 when she made her England debut in 1995, the last woman in her thirties to do so. If that is not wholly surprising, then perhaps it seems more unusual that Sonia Odedra remains the last debutante past the age of 25, in a Test against India in 2014.

Speaking to The Cricketer last year, Georgia Adams admitted to often having felt like the ship had sailed on her ambitions of higher honours prior to the announcement of the game’s domestic overhaul. “It’s interesting because in the men’s game, most players come into their prime at 27 or 28,” she said. “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.”

Lisa Keightley sensed similar. The England head coach told The Cricketer in January: “There is no doubt – even when I was coaching the England Academy team – that players felt like if they’d gone through the academy and hadn’t played for England by the time they were through the academy programme, that was it and they would never play for England.

“I have no doubt that the players still feel that if you don’t get picked in an academy or a programme, then that’s your international chance gone.”

She referenced allrounder Erin Burns, who emerged as a 31-year-old in Australia’s all-conquering juggernaut as a beneficiary of a high-class domestic structure that aided her development and encouraged her to stick at it. Until the implementation of the new system in the English game, that was the challenge for domestic players, who found time to train while balancing jobs and other commitments.

^{Sonia Odedra (left) was the last woman over the age of 25 to make her England debut; Ruth Lupton (right) was the last 30-year-old}

Last summer, Tash Farrant told The Cricketer: “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.”

Keightley added: “What England hasn’t had in the past – I know they had the county competition – but they haven’t had the opportunity of eight teams, all good quality, all with full-time athletes. It’s a real easy transition from there – if you’re performing – to move up to play international cricket.”

“This is their chance now to actually come through,” said Jenny Gunn, the World Cup-winning allrounder who was among the first tranche of central contracts seven years ago. “They’ve done all those years of sticking it out when there was nothing. I was lucky: I had the dream job with England, but these girls were working full-time and fitting everything in.

“These are the people who really get rewarded now; that’s why I’m really happy that Phoebe Graham has got a contract. Katie Levick has dominated county cricket for years and she’s getting her chance.”

Heather Knight spoke earlier this month of her joy at the level of individual performances she had witnessed so far in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, and its role in the end goal of creating a larger pool from which to select an England squad. In the years since the introduction of central contracts, players have primarily been selected from that group – something that Gunn sees possibly changing in this new era.

She asked: “Would we pick a 30-year-old who’s in form? I’m unsure. Now, with these new competitions, if someone’s in form in and around an England series, there probably is more chance for the right people to get in because a lot of the time it’s the youngsters, who sometimes end up carrying drinks for a long time. But no, throw them in there. They deserve to play. So, hopefully we are changing the way and are picking the right people at the right time.”

Adams and Sophie Luff, both 27, are two such examples – among the best players in the revamped regional system, dominating in the first instalment of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy last summer and captaining their respective teams in a busy season of T20 and 50-over cricket this time around.

Neither have ever had an opportunity in England colours, not helped by the consistency and depth of the national side’s top six: the most recent England debutante to reach the somewhat measly landmark of 100 career ODI runs was Lauren Winfield-Hill in 2013.

^{Lisa Keightley is tasked with leading this new generation of women's cricket in England}

It is why the recall of Farrant for the winter series in New Zealand carried such significance, and why the inclusion of Emily Arlott for this upcoming Test – somewhat out of the blue but on the back of a fast start to the season – has triggered such optimism: in Farrant’s case, rarely in the era of central contracts have players fallen down the pecking order and managed to pull themselves back. Knight didn’t know much of Arlott until a month ago but faced her when Western Storm played Central Sparks and now expects more “people coming out of the woodwork like Emily has”.

She is one of 41 players on the domestic scene now holding full-time, professional deals, 19 of whom are at least 25 years of age. The hope is that these recent cases become a norm, with a safety net now in place beneath the international game allowing players to commit to their craft and to chase greater ambitions.

Lupton’s generation had it differently: she had to hand back her Test blazer at the game’s conclusion and she does not remember being given travel expenses. Her England cap is at home, though badgeless, and it has begun to pick up moss with the passing of time.

“It’s something I try to avoid now,” she laughs, “partly because it’s in the past and I think there’s lots more to me than that person who did something 20-odd years ago, but also because I didn’t have a successful or long England career.

“So, when someone says it, it makes me feel like a bit of a fraud. If someone said she played county cricket, I would be comfortable with that – it was my sort of level and I was successful.”

Alongside her time in county cricket, she ran a small social research business and worked for local government, focusing on housing needs and community crime prevention. “I’d go to an area or an estate and we’d do some research on what the crime and anti-social behaviour issues were there and what local groups working with the police could do to tackle those problems,” she explains. In 1998, she went into academia, first at the London School of Economics and then in Manchester.

Needless to say, Lupton was surprised to learn of her niche slice of history, adding that she felt it was “a shame” that late developers had struggled to get a look-in at international level since her era. She recalls playing for Surrey in a side full of experience, reeling off the names of Patsy Lovell, Caroline Barrs and Jan Brittin, recalling that when she ended her county career aged 36, “everybody was really shocked at how young I’d given up because they thought I could have kept going at a high level for a bit longer”.

^{Charlotte Edwards made her Test debut two games after Lupton}

She says: “There were a lot of older players who continued playing club cricket into their 40s and 50s, like in the men’s game – it was a thing you did and a sport you enjoyed through life. It’s really changed. The development opportunities got massively bigger, but what happened was that girls started playing when they were 12 or 13 and they’d get talent-spotted.

“They’d get into a county junior team and then hauled up to a regional camp or an England thing. But then, if they didn’t get through that or make it into the England setup, I think it was a bit like swimming: if you hadn’t made it by then, you don’t necessarily carry on playing. But it was social for us; we played because we enjoyed the whole social life of cricket as well, so it didn’t really matter if you weren’t playing for England. You just played anyway.”

Conversely, last year The Cricketer told the story of Leanne Davis, the youngest cricketer – male or female – to represent England; she made her debut aged 15 but had effectively left the sport six years later. Laura Harper, a contemporary of Davis, was the previous holder of that particular record.

Alexia Walker, a former teammate of the pair and now Sussex’s head coach, explains: “Laura was an incredible talent – one of the most talented allrounders I’ve ever seen in the women’s game, but we lost her very young to the game.

“Some of it is burnout – you give so much as a young player because you feel if you’re not in the England team by the time you’re 20, you’re never going to be in it. That seems ridiculous and you’d never say that as an England male player. That’s why I’m so delighted for people like Georgia Adams and Sophie Luff – incredibly talented players who, because England have had a successful 15 to 20 years, have maybe not had the opportunity.”

On that subject, Lupton stresses: “Cricketers do develop, especially opening batsmen – it’s an experience game, facing the new ball and honing your technique. You get better at that, the older you get. You get better at creating an innings and occupying the crease. It’s all experience.

“There must be people who are not making the sides when they’re 22, but who could be great players. There must be.”

^{Sophie Luff has been namechecked several times by Heather Knight as one of the leading lights on the domestic circuit}

It is why she harbours no regrets about the timing of her Test debut, as an injury replacement for Brittin, who had suffered a hand injury in the lead-up.

“God no, I wouldn’t have been ready at 22 or 23,” she says. “Probably, my best cricket was in my late-20s. I remember 1993 being a very successful year – I definitely had more big innings then and, when I did come up against international sides, I definitely had the mental and technical experience to manage those situations and do better at them.

“But I just shouldn’t have ever got that international chance! I wasn’t really quite good enough to play for England – that is a fact, so it wouldn’t have mattered when I made my debut!”

After Brittin and Helen Plimmer, Lupton was effectively the next cab off the rank but “nowhere near as good as them”. She would be called up to training camps and opened the batting for South of England, while often being selected as a reserve for tours.

Of her Test call-up, she recalls: “I was running a little social research and consultancy business – just a couple of staff and me – and I was really busy. They rang me up and asked if I could play at the weekend. First of all, I just thought: ‘I can’t – I’ve got work stuff to do by the weekend, so I just can’t do it.’ But then, people talked me into it and said I had to go because it was a big chance. But it was ridiculous really. I didn’t play particularly well.”

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And that was that. Brittin returned for the second Test at Worcester, before a teenager by the name of Charlotte Edwards made her own international debut at Guildford in the final match of the series.

“I was around at the wrong time,” Lupton jokes. “There were some wonderful players who were better than me, so it was just a coincidence that I got a little chance.

“I’ve had a very successful career away from cricket – and I didn’t have to make a decision to be a cricketer. And so, I never had to think about what I was going to do next after cricket. Cricket was a massive part of my life, but then I moved onto other things.

“I look back on it with so many wonderful memories of that time, and I have that. But I’ve also had my life outside cricket since then. I’ve been very lucky to turn to a sport like golf, which I never had time for. I do think it’s wonderful how the game has gone on and how wonderful the players are. When I coached, I coached the junior regional team – people like Ebony Rainford-Brent and Isa Guha. It has been terrific to see them come through and take the game on such a lot, and their media careers.”