“I didn’t think I would become the number one bowler in the world and then spend my time trying to crochet an elephant – in my kitchen, on my own, with a dog that’s annoying me. What has my life come to?!”
Sophie Ecclestone isn’t best pleased.
She’s just discovered that knitting and crocheting are two different things – and she can’t do either of them.
“I’m going to text the players’ group today and ask if anyone can crochet,” she says. “Surely someone can teach me? While we’re batting this summer I can do that.”
Things have changed a little since Ecclestone rose to the top of the Twenty20 bowling rankings in March, bolstered by 50 wickets in 34 matches.
She celebrated her 21st birthday with a socially distanced buffet outside her parents’ house – “not just any buffet, an M&S buffet!” – after going into lockdown on her return from the T20 World Cup in Australia.
Lancashire’s Ecclestone was one of the standout bowlers of the tournament, taking eight wickets at an average of 6.12 and with an economy rate of just 3.23.
She is now the first England bowler since Anya Shrubsole in 2016, and the first spinner since Danielle Hazell five years ago, to become world number one.
“I’ve been aiming for that for the past year or two. Now it’s happened, it’s quite weird,” Ecclestone tells BBC Sport.
“It’s nice to know I’ve been recognised for what I’ve been doing.”
‘So, you’re OK at cricket?’
It has “always been cricket” for Ecclestone, who once embarrassed her new headmaster in front of the after-school club.
“I don’t think he realised I could actually play cricket,” she explains. “My mum told him I could play and he said: ‘Yeah, she can join in.’
“I got all the boys out, and I bowled the headmaster first ball. He said to me afterwards: ‘So, you’re OK at cricket?’
“He was so nice to me for the rest of school after that.”
Ecclestone was just 16 when she went on her first tour abroad, travelling to Sri Lanka as part of a training camp led by Lisa Keightley, who is now England head coach.
The youngest member of the squad, Ecclestone was suddenly training with players whose autographs she had been queuing up for a few years earlier.
“I’d got Katherine’s [Brunt] autograph a few times. Now she’s like: ‘For crying out loud, don’t bring that out again!'” Ecclestone explains.
“I’m going to drop Laura Marsh in it now. When I went to watch England play in 2008, she was there and my friend and I decided to get her autograph.
“We were there on the boundary and she said she’d sign at the end of the over.
“And then, at the end of the over, she ran off!”
‘The teddy bear was nodding at Robbo’
Ecclestone struggled with homesickness during the trip to Sri Lanka, with her parents wondering at one point if she would be able to cope with a career that involves travelling the world.
She was selected for her first senior England tour a year later, named as part of a 15-player squad to tour the West Indies when she was 17.
She admits she has matured since then, something all the players have noticed, but there’s one part of that tour that sticks out for her.
“I had this teddy bear…” she begins.
“It must have been a day where we had to go straight to the airport and the bear was in my rucksack, ready to go somewhere.
“I must have lost the plot by the end of the tour because Robbo [then head coach Mark Robinson] was speaking and this teddy bear was sat nodding its head at him.
“It must have been so weird for him, looking up and seeing a teddy nodding at him.”
Ecclestone had played a handful of international matches when the 50-over World Cup rolled around in 2017, and was in contention for selection.
However, she was only 17, and still had another round of exams to go before she finished school.
After sitting down with her parents and Robinson, it was decided Ecclestone would not feature in the home summer to allow her to complete her exams.
“I was fuming. I was really upset,” she says.
“Looking back now, it was the right decision – but then I can’t even remember what my A levels were in!”
Whatever they were, Ecclestone passed – although she tried to avoid telling her parents when results day was, in case they were bad – and has been a fixture in the England side since.
Helped by her control and the extra angle that comes from being 6ft tall, Ecclestone has featured in all three formats for England, and could be key in their World Cup defence next year in New Zealand.
Winning a World Cup is one of her aims – and the other?
“I’d love to be a pilot,” she adds.
“Mum and dad got me a flying lesson for my birthday, and Craig [her boyfriend] can come in the plane too.
“I can take off from Liverpool and go over my house and my mum and dad’s.
“Craig’s not thrilled, but I can’t wait.”
Article courtesy of BBC Sport
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