Charlotte Edwards: Secrets of most successful coach in women’s cricket

Charlotte Edwards is speaking from Sydney’s beautiful Eastern Suburbs, where she is eyeing an extraordinary quintuple.

This year, Edwards has coached Mumbai Indians to the inaugural Women’s Premier League title in India, Southern Brave to their first Hundred title, and Southern Vipers to the 50-over Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Trophy as well as the Twenty20 competition named in her honour. Now, she is preparing for the Women’s Big Bash with Sydney Sixers.

“At training tomorrow I’ll say to the girls, ‘No pressure ladies’,” Edwards says with a laugh. Perhaps the England women’s team’s greatest player and captain, she has become the hottest property in women’s cricket coaching. Last year, she won the Charlotte Edwards Cup, but came second in the Hundred, the RHF and the WBBL. The rate of progress is sharp.

All this is not by accident. A chat with Edwards reveals an obvious empathy in her coaching, and a deep thought about her philosophy on the game.

When she retired from playing more than five years ago, Edwards had a sense that she would end up coaching, but wanted to explore her options.

“I think deep down I knew I’d coach,” she says. “Initially, I wanted time away from the game, and the cauldron of day-to-day cricket. I had two years away, doing all sorts. I did a little bit of coaching, some commentary, lots of travel. Basically anything I was asked to do, I did. Doing something full-time scared the life out of me when I stopped. I didn’t want that commitment.”

During that spell came some part-time coaching work with Southern Vipers, for whom she had played at the end of her career. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she decided to accept a full-time coaching role. Lockdowns gave her time to think about the sort of head coach she wanted to be.

“I have taken bits from every single coach I worked with as a player or a coach,” she says. “Coaching is about listening and giving time, and I think I have done that. I work on a very simple basis. I have three Rs and three Cs I stand by.

“The three Rs are responsibility, respect and relationships. I learnt as a player that you don’t have to like everyone but you have to respect them. Those relationships are so important. You can’t spoon-feed players, they have to take responsibility for their own games.

“The three Cs are communication, care and consistency. There is nothing worse than an inconsistent coach who is up when the team is doing well and down when they’re not. I live and breathe that, and fall back on it when things are going well or badly.

“I have never forgotten how hard the game is. I always say that to players. I think quite often players go into coaching and forget that the game is quite hard. That is where you have to have that empathy towards the player. I have been through it all as a player.”

Edwards believes that communication is especially important in women’s sport. “Women want to know the detail,” she says. “You have to be clear with them on selection; contracts. You have to have regular communication with players so they know where they stand. It’s about people management. They will get emotional, which isn’t a bad thing. Guys chuck their bats [when they’re upset], women cry, and that is no bad thing. It’s fine.”

There are challenges for Edwards in juggling jobs, not least in that drafts and planning for one competition might be happening in the mid-season of another.

Another challenge is the sheer number of players she has to build strong relationships with. But her four roles can be divided into two sections. First, is the franchise work in the WPL, WBBL and the Hundred, where the head coach pops in for a few weeks each year to “facilitate” for a group of the world’s best players. Then, there is her work in the England and Wales Cricket Board’s regional system with Southern Vipers, “where I really coach”.

“I’ve had some very special moments, but of all my roles, I’ve loved the Vipers most,” she explains. “That’s where I truly coach, and in turn that is where I’ve learnt the skills that I’ve used around the world. I have taken a group of players from amateur to professional, and [they] will now hopefully go on to do wonderful things for England. That is where I have earned my salt and loved every minute of it.

“I look at a group of players who have now gone on to play for England, get gigs in the franchise leagues. You’ve got Charlie Dean, Lauren Bell, Freya Kemp, Maia Bouchier, four players who were with us from a young age and we’ve seen really develop as players and people in that time. Kemp is still so young, but has been in the Vipers set-up since she was 13. Then there are girls who have gone from being amateurs to really strong professional regional players. Georgia Adams, on that, is playing in the WBBL this year.

“I am a good watcher with the franchise teams, but it’s harder with the Vipers. I spend the most time with them and am really invested, especially as they’re young and probably make a few more mistakes. I am on the edge of my seat, so keen for them to do well.

“As lucky as the players are, I feel so lucky as well. I’m doing a job I would do for free. I feel fortunate to be coaching in an era of opportunity. Even 10 years ago players would retire and leave cricket. We have lost a lot of good people to the game not being professional. I do feel a responsibility to help the next generation of players, because there aren’t as many female coaches. There will hopefully be more and more as there are more opportunities. It’s wonderful to think where the game has gone in the last five years, and it’s got even further to go. I can see the coaching landscape changing.”

Edwards says her chaotic freelance life is fun, but she may tire of it. At which point, the international game beckons.

“That has always been the ambition,” the 43-year-old says. “As a player I always wanted to play for England. Now I want to coach internationally. At the moment this feels the right path for me, while I am a young-ish coach with the energy.

“But at some point I’d like to coach internationally. You see that the Olympics is coming in 2028, and as a player that would have excited me to go to an Olympic Games, and as a coach it’s the same. Who knows what the future holds, but I’d love to have a crack at it.”

At this rate, she will surely get her chance with England.