Arriving at Lord’s in January 2020 to attend Lisa Keightley’s first press conference, you could smell excitement in the air. This was the first female head coach to lead England in the professional era, and she had ambition. “I’m planning to be in the World Cup final,” Keightley declared.
Two months later, England were on a plane back from Australia having failed to achieve that goal, losing against India in the T20 semi-finals in Sydney, admittedly partly because of rain. Days later, the pandemic struck, putting the result very much in perspective. Suddenly, Keightley’s aspirations for the team took a backseat to navigating a new world where cricket balls were “vectors of transmission”.
