England’s women cricketers have stepped back from social media to focus on the World Cup after consulting the gold-medal winning GB hockey team, who made the same decision during the Rio Olympics.
A number of England’s cricketers were scarred from comments they received on Twitter during defeat to Australia in the one-off Ashes Test in 2015. As the first women’s Test to be broadcast on Sky, they were subject to more criticism and abuse than they had previously experienced.
When the topic of a social media exile arose during chats with members of the GB women’s hockey team, most decided to come off Twitter, though some are still active on Instagram.
Despite some irritation within the ECB that the hiatus comes during a home tournament, when interest in women’s cricket globally and domestically is at its highest, Mark Robinson said the break, discussed at length by the team on their tour of the UAE in April, is player led and that he backed it. “I probably would but I’m the wrong era – I’m a 50-year-old bloke who has never been on Twitter,” the England coach said.
“What we do know is that if you are doing social media, you need to be able to take the good and bad. You need to be tough enough if somebody is going to criticise you. There is an argument to say why would you put yourself out there and make yourself vulnerable but we’ve left it to the players to make that decision.”
Alex Danson, one of the hockey players consulted, warned last year that: “You read something on Twitter and it can destroy you or inflate you too much. Coming off social media was the best decision we made.”
Over the winter an unnamed England cricketer was knocked back after receiving abuse over social media for the first time. Last month, the England captain, Heather Knight, responded to a tweet from a user who asked “Why is a woman commenting on men’s cricket?” when it was announced she would be appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Test Match Special. Knight tweeted: “See if I can fit it in between my cooking and hoovering.”
Robinson was keen to stress the social media break does not mean players are being sheltered: “The girls aren’t hiding away. They want to engage with supporters. It is about committing as much as you can for three weeks, mentally and physically.”
Lauren Winfield will miss Tuesday’s game against Pakistan at Leicester as she continues her recovery from the wrist injury that kept her out of the defeat to India. She will see a specialist before the third match, against Sri Lanka at Taunton on Sunday, when decision on her further participation in the tournament will be made. The wicketkeeper Amy Jones is on standby.
Knight believes England can draw inspiration from the Pakistan men’s team, who were beaten by India in their opening ICC Champions Trophy match but then went on to win the tournament.
“It wasn’t the way we wanted to start but Pakistan started in a similar way in the Champions Trophy and they did pretty well,” Knight said. “The India defeat won’t change the way we approach the game against Pakistan on Tuesday. It keeps us honest but it’s about how we react now.”