As number one in the world in the Reliance Mobile Women’s ODI Batting Rankings, it is no surprise that Claire Taylor wants her team to also become the world number one by winning the ICC Women’s World Cup.
The 33-year-old from Buckinghamshire, who has been nominated on three occasions for ICC Women’s Player of the Year Award, believes that victory in Australia would be the highlight of her outstanding ODI career.
“It would be amazing to win the World Cup having personally spent so much time working towards it and focussing so much of my energy on it,” said Taylor.
“As a team it would be great to show, having had such a good run of games, that when it comes to the big game, in the crunch time of the tournament, we can perform.”
Taylor admits that there is a lot of responsibility on her and Charlotte Edwards, the England skipper, to perform well in what will be her third World Cup, but hopes the emergence of new talented players will help relieve the burden at this event.
“There is pressure in being one of the key batters and you feel every time you get out the other team is so happy and it all adds to resolve of not getting out and having a key impact on the game,” she said.
“Some of the players who have been developing over the last 18 months mean we have some really exciting talent coming through so if people think England is all about Claire and Charlotte they will miss the exciting talents of the likes of Sarah Taylor, Caroline Atkins and Ebony Rainsford-Brent.”
Taylor believes that the tournament provides an excellent platform for the emergence of some new stars in the women’s game.
“Of course new players will come through. Generally in the women’s game we don’t get to play this many games in such a short space of time and some people will come to the tournament who won’t perform to the best of their ability and there will be other people who will come here without the expectation,” said Taylor.
“I think our two front-line spinners are going to have an impact. Laura Marsh and Holly Colvin will be key for us and I think they will learn a lot in the early stages of the tournament playing against the likes of India and Pakistan who are traditionally strong against spin bowling.”
Taylor is clearly relishing the challenge of taking on the world’s best players during the course of the next three weeks and she admits the challenge of combating different styles of play is something she enjoys, especially when it can be hard to find information about the opposition in advance of taking on these players.
“One of the great things about tournament cricket is you get to play so many different teams and so many different styles in such a short space of time and that is great as you get exposed to a lot of different players, which is different to series cricket when you get used to certain bowlers and know what you are going to do against them.
“Sometimes you can get too caught up in trying to find out too much information about other teams, but I think it is important that you get to learn a few new things about teams.”
“Some of the teams have analysts here and it is there job to distil information and all of the footage,” she said.
Performing that role for England is Gemma Broad, sister of England star Stuart Broad, and Taylor paid tribute to the importance of that position in the squad.
“She looks at all of the footage from women’s cricket over the past couple of years, all the stats, information about the grounds and presents this information to the players. She also spends a lot of time talking to the two coaches, providing information on the opposition and ideas on how we need to play against them,” said Taylor.
“We need to concentrate on what we are doing but it does help bowlers setting fields for certain players and knowing where to bowl to certain players.”
England opens its campaign on Saturday against Sri Lanka, a side it last faced in November 2005 when it won an ODI series 2-0.
The 33-year-old from Buckinghamshire, who has been nominated on three occasions for ICC Women’s Player of the Year Award, believes that victory in Australia would be the highlight of her outstanding ODI career.
“It would be amazing to win the World Cup having personally spent so much time working towards it and focussing so much of my energy on it,” said Taylor.
“As a team it would be great to show, having had such a good run of games, that when it comes to the big game, in the crunch time of the tournament, we can perform.”
Taylor admits that there is a lot of responsibility on her and Charlotte Edwards, the England skipper, to perform well in what will be her third World Cup, but hopes the emergence of new talented players will help relieve the burden at this event.
“There is pressure in being one of the key batters and you feel every time you get out the other team is so happy and it all adds to resolve of not getting out and having a key impact on the game,” she said.
“Some of the players who have been developing over the last 18 months mean we have some really exciting talent coming through so if people think England is all about Claire and Charlotte they will miss the exciting talents of the likes of Sarah Taylor, Caroline Atkins and Ebony Rainsford-Brent.”
Taylor believes that the tournament provides an excellent platform for the emergence of some new stars in the women’s game.
“Of course new players will come through. Generally in the women’s game we don’t get to play this many games in such a short space of time and some people will come to the tournament who won’t perform to the best of their ability and there will be other people who will come here without the expectation,” said Taylor.
“I think our two front-line spinners are going to have an impact. Laura Marsh and Holly Colvin will be key for us and I think they will learn a lot in the early stages of the tournament playing against the likes of India and Pakistan who are traditionally strong against spin bowling.”
Taylor is clearly relishing the challenge of taking on the world’s best players during the course of the next three weeks and she admits the challenge of combating different styles of play is something she enjoys, especially when it can be hard to find information about the opposition in advance of taking on these players.
“One of the great things about tournament cricket is you get to play so many different teams and so many different styles in such a short space of time and that is great as you get exposed to a lot of different players, which is different to series cricket when you get used to certain bowlers and know what you are going to do against them.
“Sometimes you can get too caught up in trying to find out too much information about other teams, but I think it is important that you get to learn a few new things about teams.”
“Some of the teams have analysts here and it is there job to distil information and all of the footage,” she said.
Performing that role for England is Gemma Broad, sister of England star Stuart Broad, and Taylor paid tribute to the importance of that position in the squad.
“She looks at all of the footage from women’s cricket over the past couple of years, all the stats, information about the grounds and presents this information to the players. She also spends a lot of time talking to the two coaches, providing information on the opposition and ideas on how we need to play against them,” said Taylor.
“We need to concentrate on what we are doing but it does help bowlers setting fields for certain players and knowing where to bowl to certain players.”
England opens its campaign on Saturday against Sri Lanka, a side it last faced in November 2005 when it won an ODI series 2-0.
ICC Women's World Cup 2009 - News Wednesday, March 04, 2009 11:14:35 AM
