Lauren Bell

So if you had ambitions of playing for England as well as playing for Scotland or whatever, you would go to Loughborough and go through that programme.

And it was almost like a... sort of the elite programme that I mean Lauren Bell also went through that Sophia Dunkley also went through that there were other products of that kind of going to Loughborough because it was the place you went where you could almost be a sort of proto-professional cricketer for three years while doing your degree

what you're saying is that even though those players some of the players you just mentioned were very bright and could potentially have gone to any university in the country they specifically chose Loughborough because of that cricket programme yeah and that's because of now professionalism um across the country that effect has dissipated

yeah because most players are not going to university because they're going well you know that i mean they're being kind of pushed by the teams to go well you know sign your contract now because in three years time you know there might not be somebody else come up

She's just too good.

Um, there is that with, uh, with Lauren Bell, um, uh-

Bhai, bhai, bhai, bhai

...

there is that in the first, first game of that, uh, uh, t- twenty twenty-five, uh, World Cup where South Africa were bowled out for 69, um, in the ODI World Cup last year's, and it was Ecclestone and Lauren Bell, I think, who did the most of the job.

And like just at her best, you can't play her.

She's too good, too tight.

Your final pick, sir.

Um, actually those three are also all recovering from injury.

Um, the others were, um, who were having their workloads managed are Lauren Bell, Sophie Ecclestone, Amy Jones, Alice Capsey, Lindsay Smith, Danni Gibson.

Oh, and Izzy Wong as well, but there's also mention of a foot niggle.

Goodness me, this is-

... that's absolutely reasonable.

Um, but I mean, I, I'm, I don't want to pick on one player, but it's easier to pick on one player because it's, it's an example.

Um, so let's take Lauren Bell, um, and let's take now, let's l- look at my notes to kind of remember what's going on here because we're gonna have to have a little bit of a dive into something that I like to call men's cricket here.

Ooh.

Um, the other thing I wanted to touch on from an England perspective is player availability for the final rounds of the Metro Bank One Day Cup.

So of players who are not currently managing injuries, none of Lauren Bell, Sophie Ecclestone, Amy Jones, Alice Capsey, Lindsey Smith, and Danni Gibson will be available for the rest of the season for their respective counties.

This is with a view to manage workload.

I get the managing workload stuff, but I basically think this is a bit rubbish that more England players aren't available for the final rounds of the One Day Cup.

But, and I don't want to put that much pressure on her, but she reminds me a lot of when I...

Well, I was just going to say, she reminds me a lot of seeing a young Lauren Bell when I was there doing the cricket because Belly was on my pitch when I did it, right? Yeah.

And the way that she runs in, she bowls pace as well, man.

She can bowl short balls.

OK, well, that's an interesting one.

Now, obviously, the thing that we're looking at here is what is England's bowling depth? Because they are missing their three best bowlers, arguably their three best bowlers, Lauren Bell, Sophie Eccleston and Lindsay Smith.

Yeah, I'd put Charlie Dean at number.

I'd say four of the top three.

And, you know, I accept we all see players when they're young and we get excited about players.

You know, I remember getting really excited about Lauren.

Lauren Bella played one game for Berkshire as a 14 year old and I was up there.

up on this pedestal saying, you know, this girl is going to play for England, this girl could be the best bowler in the world.

She targeted the stumps a lot, whereas previously she looked like she'd either tried to chuck it down as fast as possible or swing it away from the batter.

She bowled really accurately, and I think it was just quite a mature image of her, and when you look at Lauren Bell not being in this series, it looked like she thrived on that extra responsibility of being the leader of the pack.

Yeah, I think so, and I think you probably see that a lot in The Hundred and when she played for, I remember last year in the, um, in the finals day, like when she was playing for Warwickshire.

I feel like that extra bit of responsibility, knowing that she's a key cog, she almost rises to.

That's a great asset to have as a, you know, as a professional athlete wanting it to be, you know, wanting to be the one.

Um, and I do sort of feel like I get the sense of when she has that extra responsibility and when she knows that it's, it's sort of on her a little bit to lead, we do see the, the best in her and I think that was actually started in The Hundred.

I think, you know, there's, you know, she c- she was, she was fairly expensive player, key cog in that sort of, um, that side and really led, you know, her and Lauren Bell really led the attack as that duo and probably got a little bit of an insight into how things could look, um, from an England point of view.

Um, and I think she just ...

Yeah, so I've actually just got the list up here now, actually.

Did you mention Alice Capsy? Charlie Dean, Danny Gibson, Izzy Wong, Lauren Bell and Lauren Filer have all played in there.

I'm pretty sure as well Davina Perrin's played in the school games as well.

Charlie Dean's got a team

She's had a brilliant, a brilliant summer for Warwickshire.

Um, what it does do is obviously depletes a lot of teams of players, domestic players who, you know, you don't normally get a Lauren Bell or a Nat Sciver-Brunt or a Heather Knight back playing, or Amy Jones when England are playing, sorry.

So they're not normally in the c- domestic stuff, but what it is doing is taking, like, big parts of squads out of domestic cricket now.

So it is crunch time in the 50-over cup as well because there's a lot of people fighting for third place.