Jon Lewis has beaten his namesake to become the new head coach of the England Women’s cricket team. The 47-year-old former Gloucestershire and England seamer has won the battle against the 52-year-old ex- Durham captain and coach, also named Jon Lewis, to coach the four-time ODI world champions. He replaced Lisa Keightley, who stepped down at the end of the summer after opting against seeking an extension to her contract.
Before taking on this new role, Lewis was the pace bowling coach for the England men’s team, a position he adopted in 2021 and worked with Chris Silverwood and most recently Brendon McCullum. Following the announcement of his new job, Lewis, who played 16 times for England across all three formats, is relishing the new challenge.
“It's very exciting to have been appointed as head coach of the England Women's team," he said. "It's a new challenge, and one that I can't wait to get stuck into. I've watched from a distance over the last few years and it's clear that there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic about this team's chances going forward.
"The last couple of years have seen the introduction of some younger players and that, allied with the increased strength in depth coming from the regional game, is a really promising sign for the coming few years. Our immediate focus is the West Indies, and particularly getting some points on the board in the ICC Women's Championship, and then we'll look ahead to South Africa and the ICC Women's T20 World Cup."
Lewis will take charge for the women's tour of the West Indies, which begins on December 4 and will hope the three one-day internationals and five T20Is will provide adequate preparation en route to next year’s T20 World Cup. England’s fortunes have been rather mixed as of late. They reached the final of this year’s 2022 ODI world cup, before missing out on a medal at the Commonwealth Games this summer.
During the end-of-summer series with India, England won the T20 series, but produced a poor showing when they lost the ODI games 3-0, where the final match was overshadowed by a Mankad controversy. With seven of the team’s 17 centrally contracted players aged 29 or older, along with eight 24 and younger, Lewis inherits an England squad in transition.
Jonathan Finch, the ECB's director of England women's cricket, is keen to embark on a partnership with the team’s new coach in this new phase for the cricket team. "We're really pleased to be able to appoint Jon as the new head coach of England Women following a thorough and competitive recruitment process,” he said.
“We set out to find a head coach with a range of experiences to help lead an exciting group of players across all formats and I am excited with what the future holds with Jon in the role.
"Jon comes with excellent pedigree in the men's game working across different levels of the international pathway, and we were really impressed by how he sees the role moving forward. We look forward to him coming on board and driving the future direction of this team."
