English women employ an Aussie to help prepare for tough summer

Sunday, 24th June sees the start of the CricInfo Test series between the women of England and Australia at Shenley. The players then move to Derby, Northampton and Lord's for the CricInfo One-Day International series, before the Second Test gets under way at Headingley on 6th July.

During a similar period last summer, the English women would have been taking on the undisputed world champions. However, since an unexpected defeat at the hands of hosts, New Zealand, in the final of the CricInfo Women's World Cup just before Christmas, the Australians can no longer regard themselves as being invincible.

The summer still presents a tough challenge for England however; for in Christchurch it was the Kiwi girls who proved themselves to be up there on a par with the Australians, rather than the Aussies going backwards.

Before the World Cup began, Australia and New Zealand were thought to be out on their own with two out of England, South Africa and India likely to occupy the other semi-final places. But England failed to beat either of their rivals and so were the team to miss out.

Just as the men's team looked overseas for a coach to resurrect the national fortunes by enlisting Duncan Fletcher from Zimbabwe, so too have the English women. John Harmer is the man asked to turn around the women's game and restore it to its position of former glory. The delightful irony here is that John Harmer has been coach of the Australian women's team and lifted it to a supreme status in the game.

How does he feel about changing camps and finding himself pitted against his former charges immediately? "Not well" is the instant response. Then, more seriously, "I'm looking forward to it with a great deal of excitement because I think we can do a lot of work and we've got a lot of interested people here - young people who are keen to tackle the issues and get on with it. That will be excellent - working with the other staff."

Harmer believes that he saw enough potential in the England camp to lift them to challenge the likes of Australia and New Zealand. "I don't think there's any question that they can do it; just a question of how we go about it. There are some good players and the advances made in athleticism and skills in the last three years have been very significant, so we just need to build on what's already there."

There is nobody better to judge what progress England will have hopefully made in the course of this summer, and Harmer's appointment as full-time coach on a long-term contract as part of a wider national strategy for cricket must bode well for the future. Not that miracles can be expected in such a short time, but if progress can be seen to be occurring, John Harmer will at least be on the way to achieving one of the ECB's stated aims for women's cricket - winning back the World Cup last held in 1993.

Certainly England have the base from which to build a good side. Evergreen Clare Taylor was the second top wicket taker in the CricInfo Women's World Cup, Claire Taylor is far too fine a player not to come back strongly, and skipper Clare Connor fronts a young side full of emerging talents - such as 17-year-old spinner Laura Harper.

As for the Australians, they still represent a mighty test for any newly found inspiration among the English women. They might have got it wrong one day in Christchurch, but as a cricketing unit of the highest calibre, they will have been stung by that defeat and will be going flat out to restore lost pride. It should be some contest.