Charlotte Edwards rules herself out of England Women head coach running

Charlotte Edwards has ruled herself out of contention for the soon-to-be-vacant England Women's head coach role.

Lisa Keightley will leave the post she has held for three years after announcing last month that she would not seek a contract extension beyond India's tour of England, which ends with the last of three ODIs at Lord's on September 24.

Edwards was widely seen as a strong candidate for the position, given her success with Southern Vipers and Southern Brave, should she want to apply.

She told ESPNcricinfo two weeks ago that she was interested in the job but, when asked again during her Sky Sports commentary stint in Bristol, where England and India were contesting their third and final T20I, Edwards said she had decided not to put herself forward for it.

"I won't be applying for the England coach's role," Edwards said. "I'm thoroughly enjoying my role with the Southern Vipers and I'm heading off to Australia in two weeks' time to coach the Sydney Sixers. So there, it's done."

Edwards will make her WBBL coaching debut with Sixers in the upcoming edition of the competition, having seen Vipers to back-to-back domestic 50-over titles in 2020 and '21 and lift the 20-over Cup named after her in June. She has also twice taken Southern Brave to the final of the women's Hundred in the first two years of the competition.

Edwards is England's leading run-scorer in women's ODIs and T20Is, and captained her country to three Ashes victories in 2008, 2013 and 2014 as well as 50-over and T20 World Cups in 2009.

Despite admitting she has "massive ambitions to coach internationally", Edwards had previously indicated that it would be tough to trade in her many coaching hats, albeit for one she described as "one of the most prestigious jobs going around".

"I feel like I have the best job in the world doing what I'm doing," she said at the time. "That's going to be the hardest thing: I've loved doing the Southern Vipers, I've loved doing the Southern Brave and I've got the Sydney Sixers role in Australia, so there's a lot going on.

"That's why I've not really thought about it, and why I need to think long and hard about what the next step is for me.

"I feel like I'm ready to do something like that, since I've had six years since I've stopped playing. The Sixers was a big role to take on because I wanted to test myself in a different country. There's lot to think through."

Now, with Edwards' mind made up, England's search goes on.