A couple of months after they were dumped out of the 2017 World Cup, the Australia squad gathered to watch their semi-final defeat by India.
Battered, bruised and without a world title in any format in their trophy cabinet, Meg Lanning’s team drew a line in the sand. They knew they were good, but not good enough.
“It was at that moment it slapped us in the face,” says Lanning.
“We had to do something different otherwise we’d win most games, but not the really important ones.
“It was the catalyst for how we have changed the way we approach our cricket, on and off the field.”
Lanning was speaking on a grey Monday in Christchurch, the day after she got her hands on the 50-over World Cup. It completed the set for Australia – they are now holders of both women’s World Cups and the Ashes.
Their record-breaking final victory over England was an awesome display of power, the crowning glory of perhaps the best sports team on the planet.
For England, there is no shame in losing to such a dominant force. To ask why they were unable to stop the Aussies is like wondering if anyone could have beaten Arsenal’s Invincibles, run faster than Usain Bolt or produce a routine better than Nadia Comaneci’s perfect 10 on the uneven bars.
Sometimes, the opposition are just too good.
In Australia there are about 120 women playing professional cricket for at least part of the year, compared to a maximum of 70 in England.
That depth allowed Australia to absorb injuries to Sophie Molineux, Georgia Wareham and Tayla Vlaeminck without missing a beat at the World Cup. If England had suffered similar losses, then the group-stage exit would probably not have been averted.
A greater number of high-quality players in domestic cricket also helps those in the England team guard against complacency, providing a drive to improve that might not have been there when the number of elite female cricketers in the country totalled no more than 20.
The building blocks are there for England – a group of talented young players, a strong captain who hopefully still has more to give and a domestic set-up that should grow in both size and quality.
Now, they just have to use the memory of Australia celebrating with the World Cup in the Christchurch night as their motivation to not let it happen again.
To use Lanning’s words, it should be England’s slap in the face.
Source- BBC
