Promoting gender balance in the game of cricket, Australian, Lisa Keightley, will be announced as the England women’s team’s first female head coach of the professional era this week.
She is being appointed after the World cup winning coach Mark Robinson ended his term with the team following defeat in Ashes last summer. The first challenge for the 48-year-old, an ex-ECB academy coach and currently in charge of the Perth Scorchers, will be the Twenty20 World Cup in her homeland in February. She was recently named London Spirit’s head coach for next year’s The Hundred competition although it is now likely they will have to find a replacement.
Lisa Eightley is an Australian Veteran. She was a right-handed batsman and occasional right-arm medium pace bowler. In her career span of 10 years from 1995 to 2005, She has been featured in 9 Tests and 85 One Day Internationals for the Australia national women’s cricket team and also has represented New South Wales Women in the National Cricket League. She holds the record for the highest ever maiden ton in Women’s ODI history(156*). Keightley was Australia’s third-highest ODI run-scorer when she retired in 2005.
Speaking on her appointment with News18, Keightley said: “I’m massively excited. It’s a huge opportunity. It’s a team full of world-class players and to be given the chance to work with some of the players who I worked with a few years ago is really exciting. I can’t wait to get started and see where we can get to, England are the current 50-over World Champions and they made it to the final of the last ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. They’re a very competitive side and they wouldn’t be in big matches like that if they didn’t have a really strong group of players who can perform on the big stage. I’m really looking forward to getting underway and helping the team progress,” she added.
Keightley will begin the role formally in January 2020 following the end of the 2019 WBBL tournament, with interim head coach Alastair Maiden continuing to lead the team until then.
Sources: Wikipedia, News18.com, Dailymail.co.uk
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