Michael Vaughan leads tributes to England captain Charlotte Edwards

Former England skipper Michael Vaughan and head of women’s cricket Clare Connor have led the tributes to Charlotte Edwards who reached 200 games as England captain on Tuesday.

Edwards’ side beat New Zealand by five wickets in Lincoln to seal a 2-1 Twenty20 International series win over the Silver Ferns.

No other England player in history has skippered England as many times as Edwards who has also scored more T20I runs than any cricketer in the world, male or female.

Under her leadership, England have won both the World Cup and the T20I World Cup and have also claimed three Ashes Series wins over Australia.

“The Ashes series’ that they’ve won and the World Cups that they have won in both 20 and 50 overs kind of gets unnoticed and I think Charlotte Edwards has been the pivotal figure behind that success,” Vaughan told Sky Sports News HQ.

“The leadership that she has shown, the quality in her batting and her tactical nous is quite remarkable. 200 matches as a captain of any note is amazing. How she’s lasted, I don’t know. I lasted only about 100 and it was well too much for me.”  

Edwards made her international debut at the age of 16 and has been England skipper since 2006.

But Edwards, has made it clear she has no intention of retiring anytime soon and England Women’s chief Connor says the 36-year-old’s desire to constantly improve separates her from other players.

“I think it’s probably unprecedented in women’s sport for any team captain to have been at the helm that long and to have notched up that many games as captain.” Connor said.

“It’s quite staggering from that perspective. I don’t think there are many men in international cricket who have captained their country that number of times and the amazing thing about her is her desire to get better and better.

“You’d think maybe that energy and desire might be waning after 10 years and 200 games as captain but it isn’t, if anything it’s stronger than ever.”