Charlotte Edwards banishes 'F-word' in bid to turn England's image around

Charlotte Edwards is ready to drop "the F-word" from conversations about her England Women's team as they seek to change their image and banish doubts about their fitness ahead of a home T20 World Cup next year.

A month to the day after her appointment as successor to Jon Lewis, who was sacked as head coach after the team's poor showings at the last T20 World Cup and Ashes, Edwards gave some insight into the changes she has looked to implement already.

The need to play more domestic cricket, with selection to be performance-based going forward, as stated in her first press conference as England Women's head coach at Lord's on April 2, was at the forefront, as was changing public opinion of the team.

"We've got to look at our professional behaviours and how we go about stuff and that's everything across the board," Edwards said. "Social media, we talked very openly about the perception of the team at the moment and we've got to change people's perceptions.

"But we've got to earn the right to do that and we've got to stop putting stuff on social media that doesn't need to be on there. If it's not going to positively reflect on them or us as a group, then it probably is not worth posting. But equally I want them to be themselves because that's really important to me."

England have faced criticism of their fitness levels since an error-strewn defeat in their last group game, against West Indies, at the T20 World Cup in Dubai, where social media posts from a day-off boat trip also raised eyebrows.

Edwards was back at Lord's again on Thursday speaking to journalists as the ground was announced as the venue for the final of the T20 World Cup on July 5, 2026. A month earlier, she had said she would assess fitness standards within the group for herself. After working with them at their national performance centre in Loughborough for a few weeks, she reflected on what those perceptions were versus her experience.

"Well, it was clear from the winter, I mean, I call it the F-word," she said. "I said at my press conference, 'I'll go and judge that for myself'. I was so impressed by the standards in terms of where everyone was at. They've clearly worked very hard from the period after the Ashes. That is an area, but it's one part of performance and had we won, that doesn't get brought into question. So we've equally got to keep working really hard there.

"But the cricket and getting our game-plan is more important to me. I think that's where they lost a lot of their games was through their cricket awareness. And what I want to instil in this group is that we're really smart about how we play the game - we know when to be aggressive, we know when not to be, we play every game to win. Bottom line, big tournaments are about winning and it's creating an environment so we can do that more consistently and having a game-plan to do that."

Key to implementing that game plan will be new captain Nat Sciver-Brunt, who has worked with Edwards to secure two WPL titles with Mumbai Indians in the past three years and returns from maternity leave next week, replacing long-serving skipper Heather Knight.

"When I've worked with her in Mumbai, she was vice-captain to Harmanpreet Kaur and the way she kind of drove that team, but not in a captaincy role, was something I was really impressed by," Edwards said. "She's been instrumental to success over there as well. So the opportunity for Nat to lead her own team - she's not had that opportunity - is something I think she's very excited about and we certainly are."

Edwards, who was England captain before Knight, said she would look to ease pressure on Sciver-Brunt to allow her to perform duties other than playing and leading the team, and build a leadership group around her, which could change depending on format or series. But, she added, she would probably steer clear of having a permanent vice-captain, and confirmed that Knight would not be part of the leadership group.

"For me it's Heather enjoying cricket, really focusing on her batting, she's playing as well as I've ever seen her," Edwards said. "We've had some good chats around where I see her role in the team and her bowling. I want to see her bowling more, which she was quite excited about.

"She's been great around the group. She gets on really well with Nat, they've been good friends for a number of years, so she's obviously really pleased for Nat and I genuinely think we're going to see Heather Knight scoring a lot of runs over the next couple of years."

In that time frame, England have a home series against West Indies starting on May 21, followed by India, who will then host the 50-over World Cup towards the end of the year before England stages the T20 edition next summer.

The ECB is expected to appoint a national selector ahead of the West Indies series and while Edwards said some players had "credit in the bank" from past performances, the early rounds of the Metro Bank One Day Cup have yielded some contenders for a place in the squad.

Emma Lamb is the leading run-scorer with 268 from three innings, including an unbeaten 130 in front of Edwards in Lancashire's opening game. Lamb last played for England on the tour of Ireland in September, but most memorably scored a hundred and two half-centuries in three ODIs during South Africa's visit in 2022.

Ella McCaughan has scored 64 and 133 not out in her last two appearances for Hampshire to press her claim for an England debut.

Lauren Bell, the seam bowler who was part of England's T20 World Cup and Ashes squads, has taken two wickets in each of her two outings for Hampshire as part of the centrally contracted contingent being called upon to play as much domestic cricket as possible.

"My case has always been workloads," Bell said. "I want to play as much cricket as possible. I always have done. Lottie's really keen for us to play cricket and I've said to her the best way I'm going to learn now is through playing cricket and through bowling and being competitive."

As organisers laid out ambitious plans for the 2026 World Cup to bring women's cricket into the mainstream sporting landscape permanently, being competitive has never felt so important.

Edwards was forthright in saying that winning was paramount when she took on the coaching job and she believes success in the context of a home T20 World Cup at Lord's, where England won the 50-over event in 2017, would be reaching the final.

Bell, for one, appears to have bought into Edwards' winning mentality.

"I was very thankful to Jon Lewis, he helped with me and developed me as a cricketer, very much so, gave me a lot of opportunities," Bell said. "What he brought to his team was amazing and he very much brought a lot of 'living in your shoes, enjoying it, being grateful, appreciating what you have', which will stick with me throughout my career.

"But I think we're ready to win cricket matches now and I think we just lost sight of how maybe to win and what the goals were. Hopefully now a lot can come in with a winning mentality and we can hopefully try and actually win some cricket."