English Cricketer Heather Knight urges Executives to Invest in Women's Internationals

In light of many franchise leagues launching in 2023, Heather Knight has urged cricket's administrators to invest in women's international cricket in order to maintain it as "the pinnacle of the game."

Following the conclusion of the T20 World Cup in South Africa, the inaugural seasons of the Women's IPL and the PCB's Women's T20 League will both take place in March, joining the Women's CPL, WBBL, Fairbreak Invitational, and Hundred as significant short-form leagues offering opportunities for international players.

Knight's England team spent this month on a low-key tour of the Caribbean; on Thursday night in Barbados, they hope to wrap up a 5-0 T20I sweep after taking the ODI series by a score of 3-0.

The tour has only attracted modest audiences, little media attention, and TV coverage dependent on CWI's live stream. According to Knight, investment is necessary to maintain the international game's dominance over franchise competitions.

"I think international cricket needs to be looked after and it might affect the women's game more with the difference in professionalism around the world and the difference in some teams in the depth, because of the differences in domestic leagues and things like that. It's been a little reminder, I think, that international cricket really needs to be looked after and invested in," Knight remarked.

Alice Capsey received a positive fitness update from Knight, who said that she is still a World Cup contender for England despite having to leave the tour early due to a broken collarbone sustained in the first ODI. It's going to be really tight, but we're still hoping Alice will be ready for the World Cup.

Even while she acknowledged that West Indies had trouble competing, she praised the "new and fresh" attitude that has emerged since Jon Lewis was named head coach. "We haven't faced many challenges, which is unfortunate, but I think we've done a lot of things pretty effectively and checked off a lot of the boxes we wanted to.

"In the last few of games, the West Indies have put us under pressure. We've tried to create a few situations where we put ourselves under pressure and have done a few different things when we haven't had that, because winning those tight games is what you always want to do to progress as a team," Knight said.

"But winning is amazing because it gives you so much confidence and momentum, so that's really crucial. I think we've done as much as we can this trip, and then we'll have a few games pre the World Cup to fine tune things and get super-ready come that first game," she added.