England coach Mark Robinson expects Women's World Cup to be best ever
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Wednesday 8 March 2017 21:12, UK
England coach Mark Robinson expects this year's Women's World Cup to be the best ever and has backed his side to make an impact on home soil.
England have not won a global trophy since completing the World Cup and World T20 double in 2009 and Robinson was brought in 18 months ago to try and rectify that.
The former Sussex coach took the team to the semi-finals of the 2015 T20 in Bangladesh, his first experience of tournament cricket, but has since overseen a changing of the guard, replacing long-serving captain Charlotte Edwards with Heather Knight and building towards this summer's competition on home soil.
He expects more challengers and quality players than ever before in the eight-team field, and is ready for the test he and his players will face.
"The women's game has had such good investment and the speed of change is enormous," he said.
"I think you're going to see the best quality you've ever seen. There are some outstanding players and no easy games anymore. I think there used to be to a degree but not any more.
"That's good for women's cricket. It's not as easy for the coaches but really it's what we crave.
"We need games that are tough, we need to lose some games because that's how you learn and have a chance to respond."
Robinson's side have an experienced bowling attack and, although they lack a world star at the top of the order, he does not rule out one or more emerging over the course of the month-long tournament.
"Our batting is more inexperienced but what's hugely exciting is the progress made over the last year," he added.
"I'm so excited to see some of these girls on the big world stage. It's their turn to take centre stage, to take those key positions.
"Some of the other teams may have a Meg Lanning, an Ellyse Perry, a Suzie Bates who have been there, done that and got the T-shirt. For some of our side it's their first time trying on the T-shirt and I'm hoping it's a really nice fit."
England begin their campaign against India in Derby on June 24, with other group games at Leicester, Taunton and Bristol before the Lord's final on July 23.
Watch selected games from the 2017 ICC Women's World Cup on Sky Sports. Tickets for all matches will also go on sale from 12pm via: www.icc-cricket.com/tickets.
