Women’s cricket on a new level after Mark Robinson appointment

Robinson has been an outstanding coach in the men's game

(Getty Images)

Mark Robinson’s appointment as England coach is a watershed for women’s cricket. Another watershed, it could be said, because the game keeps breaking new boundaries.

It is difficult to imagine that five years ago, perhaps even two, the job could have attracted someone like Robinson, who had already been an outstanding coach in the men’s game. It is a measure of the changed status and rapidly amended perceptions.

Robinson has been cricket manager at Sussex for the last 10 years, during which they have won six trophies, including two County Championship titles. He had also coached England Lions on two recent tours.

It may be that the time was right for Robinson to leave Sussex, who were relegated from First Division of the Championship last season. But his reputation as a rational coach who understands the needs of players has been established over more than a decade.

He has been entrusted with reviving the fortunes of an England team, who have underachieved lately. They lost the Ashes last summer and have failed to win a limited-overs trophy for six years, embracing three World Twenty20s and a 50-over World Cup.

Robinson is aware that expectations have changed since the women’s game became fully professional in 2014. This has been accompanied by bigger crowds and closer scrutiny.

“In terms of the challenge of being professional, I think it’s one of the reasons, hopefully, I can help,” he said. “It’s a new challenge for the women. There is not an experienced professional in the team who has been through it and done it and been beaten up by the press and come out the other side and got medals and scars. It’s all brand new.

“With professionalism there comes a cost with accountability and expectation of performance. But what we must do is keep some of the innocence and genuine love, which is why we played the game in the first place.”

Robinson was partly persuaded to apply for the job because of his 15-year-old daughter, Elly, who plays for Sussex Girls. As he watched her, he was reminded of why his passion for the game had begun. “I sat on the boundary edge and watched,” he said. “I’ve seen it from the parents’ and girls’ point of view. It brought me right back to why we get involved with the game. It has been good for me and in the last two years the explosion in women’s sport has been unbelievable. When this role came up it seemed so right on so many levels.”

Robinson, a Yorkshireman who played 229 first-class matches as a seam bowler for his own county, Northamptonshire and Sussex, is clearly a catch for England. Clare Connor, the director of women’s cricket at the ECB, is clearly expecting progress.

She said: “You can’t be too impatient but it is their occupation and we’ve got to have high expectations. Equally, we have to help the players make the transition to being full-time cricketers.”