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Ecclestone considered quitting cricket in wake of Ashes row

England spinner starred at Lord's last week, but reveals she 'wasn't sure' she'd return from mental-health break

Valkerie Baynes
Valkerie Baynes
22-Jul-2025 • 7 hrs ago
Sophie Ecclestone is missing from England's first squad of the summer, May 14, 2025

Sophie Ecclestone missed the early part of England's season in the wake of a tumultuous winter  •  Getty Images

Sophie Ecclestone has revealed she considered quitting cricket in the aftermath of the off-field drama surrounding England Women's T20 World Cup and Ashes failures.
Ecclestone missed the start of the international summer when England hosted West Indies, instead playing for Lancashire during the T20I series while she managed her comeback from a knee injury. She was then ruled out of the ODI series, citing the need to prioritise her wellbeing.
Having returned for both white-ball series against India, Ecclestone spoke about the reasons surrounding her absence in a pre-match interview ahead of the third and final ODI at Chester-le-Street.
She had come under fire during the Ashes in Australia, where England lost the points series 16-0, after Alex Hartley, the former England spinner turned broadcaster, said Ecclestone had refused to be interviewed by her on TV. Hartley also said she had been "given the cold shoulder" by England players since criticising their fitness following their group-stage exit from the T20 World Cup last October.
"It was a tough time for me personally," Ecclestone told Sky Sports in a pitch-side interview before play on Tuesday. "I tore my meniscus and I had a very sore knee, but I feel like personally I was so tired and so drained from the last few months.
"As a cricketer, we don't stop, we don't get much time off and we go from franchise tournaments to England tournaments and it takes it out of you. I feel like during the West Indies series I wasn't actually sure if I was going to come back and play cricket.
"I was away from cricket and I cried to a few people, I cried to my dad, I get emotional now, but it was it was a tough time. But I feel like I've come out the other side now and I'm back playing cricket."
Ecclestone credited team-mates Lauren Bell and Alice Capsey, along with her family and friends for helping her return to the cricket field with "a smile on my face again". That culminated in a Player-of-the-Match award for her 3 for 37 at Lord's on Saturday, which helped England to an ODI series-levelling victory.
Ecclestone disputed the use of the word "refusal" when it came to the infamous interview with Hartley, and appeared to take issue with the timing of the request to talk, suggesting that she wanted to concentrate on her warm-up.
"It was a weird time," Ecclestone said. "I feel like obviously that went down the wrong way, and a few things were said, and I was just concentrating on cricket at that moment.
"A lot of things were being said which wasn't ideal for me and it affected me quite a lot to be honest. It took a lot out of me. There were a lot of words being thrown around about me that I thought were untrue and it wasn't very nice to hear.
"I kind of had to put that to one side, and I did go off social media for a couple of weeks actually during the Ashes, just because it was affecting me quite a lot, what was being said. It wasn't very nice but we've all learnt from that now and there's a lot of feelings involved but we're all over that now, and ready to move on."
Ecclestone went on to say that she believed misconceptions had emerged about her in the fallout from the incident.
"I feel like a lot of words were being thrown around about me that weren't true," she said. "Just that I was really arrogant maybe, and that's just not me as a person.
"The word refusal was getting thrown around and that just wasn't really true and some of the things people were saying about the team I didn't really agree with, so it was hard to take for me and hard to take for the team."
Immediately after the Ashes, Clare Connor, managing director of England women's cricket, described the interview situation as "an unfortunate incident that won't happen again".
"Our players in general… embrace their media obligations," Connor said. "It matters to them to be good role models for women's cricket and the England women's cricket team. As professional women's cricket has developed at the rate that it has over recent years, that scrutiny is something that we will all have to embrace and accept."
Ecclestone acknowledged that women's cricket being in the spotlight more than when she made her debut as a 17-year-old in 2016 was a positive thing and said she had learned from the experience, including the public's reaction.
"I was so surprised," she said. "I feel like it got slightly blown out of proportion but it was no-one's fault. It was hard at the time because I feel like I came out to my phone and had about 25,000 messages about something that had happened in the media and I was like, 'well what's happened?' Then I came out and I saw it all, and I was just like, 'wow like that's mega.'"

Valkerie Baynes is a general editor, women's cricket, at ESPNcricinfo

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