'I am really gutted'

Andrew Flintoff celebrated his England Ashes win with a 12-hour drinking session that didn't even stop when he got to Downing Street. England's women had no such luck. On the day they won back the trophy at Worcester, the girls just wanted to have fun - but their season wasn't yet over.

"The celebrations after actually winning were quiet," explained England's captain, Clare Connor, "because early the next morning we had to set off for Taunton for the final one-dayers. We did all the right things - we filled our ice baths, but this time we had bottles of champagne in there with us, too.

"We went out for a team meal, then just went off to the pub for a few drinks. Everyone was shattered because we are just not used to Test cricket. Everyone was in bed for 11, which is a bit lame! We had a good night out at the end of the series, though."

And a good day, too: the women were treated the same as the men; joining their bus parade and going to Downing Street and Lord's, too. "I thought the women's side of it had the potential to fall a bit flat or to be completely and utterly overshadowed," Connor admits. "It wasn't like that at all - it was a real feeling of sharing."

Connor has played for England for ten years, and in that time she has witnessed great strides towards professionalism - but she knows that, even now, they can't take anything for granted. The summer itinerary, for example, was a hotch-potch of one-dayers wedged in between Tests, and although Connor raised her concerns, she was told nothing could be done `because of ground logistics'.

"I emailed [the ECB] and said: `Why split up the Tests? It's hard enough to play that format of the game.' It's really hard to play a Test, then three ODIs, then a Test, then two more. But I'm not complaining now!"

Indeed, none of the team complain - willingly juggling studying or working to play for their country - and Connor is grateful for the support the ECB offer. "No other team in the world is as well-funded as we are. We know that we're lucky - in the scheme of women's cricket, anyway."

Slowly, surely, the women's achievements are filtering into the national consciousness. "The men were really great," says Connor, "They knew a little bit about our win and Michael Vaughan phoned me on the day we won the Ashes, from Trent Bridge."

But, while Pietersen and co. get their highlights touched up in Hollywood, Connor and her team are back at work, or university. "You've to have good time management," Connor says. "A good thing is that lots of them are students or work part-time."

Connor herself is returning to full-time work; as head of PR at Brighton College, a role she will combine with teaching English. "They're really supportive of me," she says of her colleagues, "but I get loads of banter: "Good to see Connor's made it three days on the run. Will she manage the whole week?" They think I'm going to use the fact that I'm off on PR duty at school as a euphemism for having a net."

While Connor eases back into school life after a two-year sabbatical, she is also facing up to the prospect of missing her first series in ten years, when England travel to Sri Lanka and India in November, while she recovers from a persistent ankle injury.

"I am really gutted," she says. "It will be hard but I've got my head round it and I know it's the best thing long-term. When I came back from the World Cup I was so, so disappointed. I didn't know if I wanted to carry on for a long time. I knew I wanted to play against Australia ... but I now know that I want to play in the next World Cup. Having this winter off to get my body right is going to help that happen."

But in her indomitable, can-do way, Connor is keen to help out to the last; heading up to Loughborough for a handover to stand-in captain Charlotte Edwards, and sending her team a group email packed with advice: "I told them to embrace India, to see it as an amazing team experience. It's a big test.

"You're challenged in so many ways: your diet, accommodation sometimes, things not happening on time. Everything is different and everything takes you out of your comfort zones. They're a country who are fanatical about their cricket."

England head to the subcontinent on the back of six straight series wins: but Connor admits that the Ashes victory was somewhat unexpected, after 40 years of Australian dominance. A laid-back approach to the first Test, to use it as a warm-up for the one-dayers, merely added to the unlikelihood of victory.

However, she is adamant that, given the choice at the start of the summer of winning the Ashes or the NatWest Series, she would have taken the Ashes every time - "The Ashes," she says, "is very important."

So how did they finally win? "To be honest, I don't know. Before the series, I can remember sitting with Batesy [England coach Richard Bates] to talk about the team, and we were both concerned about losing Lucy [Pearson, a strike bowler] and how we would take 20 wickets. But we took 20 wickets both games."

Exposure to men's cricket will have helped. Arran Brindle plays in first-team men's league cricket on a Saturday, and this, says Connor, has played a big part in her development. "She played [Australian fast-bowler Cathryn] Fitzpatrick the best of anyone and I'm convinced it's because she's used to facing men bowling round her head."

They won the prize with no preparation for the Tests themselves. "It is a shock to the system when you play Test cricket," she admits, and acknowledges a steep learning curve: "You really realise how important every session is."

But she dismisses suggestions of lengthening any part of the domestic game, with a thoughtful nod to those who play recreationally: "It's not in the interests of everyone playing women's cricket in this country. We don't play enough Tests - we play three Tests per year, maximum."

And for the rest of the year, Test cricket is off the radar. "We don't talk about Test cricket from month-to-month, until it arrives because we have to focus all of our attention on one-day stuff. I don't think we need to spend any more time preparing for it than we do - which is nothing. "New Zealand have got no interest in playing Tests," she adds, "so there's only really us, Australia and India who have kept Test cricket going."

And it never really stops. India, who reached the World Cup final earlier this year, are lurking just around the corner: and the team will also be without their stalwart pace bowler, Clare Taylor, who has just announced her retirement. Connor, though, is confident: "It's going to be very tough - but we will just have the edge. There will be lots to adjust to: no Lucy; no Romper; no me; Lottie as captain; India. But who wouldn't want to be playing for England at the moment?"