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Hartley used the example of Australia, the premier team in the world, continuing to overlook leg-spinner Amanda-Jade Wellington, who has not played international cricket since 2022.
“Australia have got 15 or 16 athletes, genuine athletes,” said Hartley. “They have the best leg-spinner in the world in Amanda-Jade Wellington, that doesn’t even get in their squads any more because she’s not fit enough.”
Asked about the fitness of the national team, England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive Richard Gould said: “Athleticism in cricket is increasingly important. We need to go back 10 or 20 years in the men’s game to see the difference that provides.
“We want to provide whatever support we can to all our players. We’ve under-invested in the women’s game for a long time. Only going back to 2019, we had 18 professional players. Next year, we’ll have closer to 200 professional women’s players.
“That’s a lot of progress in a short amount of time and there will be things that we want to continue to improve on.”
Knight took charge in 2016 and led England to their last major trophy in 2017. Hartley pointed to the chaos in the field in Knight’s absence as a reason for the 33-year-old to stay on. She also supported head coach Jon Lewis.
“When you have not won a World Cup for so long, things need to change,” said Hartley. “Last night showed how much England need Heather Knight on the field, because she’s a calm character. She wasn’t there and everyone was looking around all flustered.
“I don’t know where change comes from. I think Jon Lewis is the right man for the job. He has changed women’s cricket, getting the girls to realise they can have a better work-life balance.
“Whether or not they have potentially gone too far the other way, I’m not sure.”