From England heartbreak to learning to love cricket again

Losing her England contract was a devastating blow but Alex Hartley is learning to love cricket again all the same.

The World Cup winner is one of 41 female players to have signed full-time regional deals in what has been hailed as a revolutionary step for the women’s game.

The North West Thunder, the team that Hartley captains, are also kicking on themselves after revealing sports travel company Sportsbreaks.com as their first standalone shirt sponsor.

They are gearing up for another run at the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, an eight-team, 50-over tournament beginning its second season on Saturday.

Hartley, though, would prefer it started immediately.

“I love cricket again, I absolutely love being here. I'm chomping at the bit to train and I'm bowling 16 overs a day,” she says.

The domestic contracts signed by Hartley and the other professional players from across the eight regional teams are in addition to the 17 central contracts issued to the England squad.

Hartley was heartbroken to lose her own central contract after making 32 international appearances between 2016-2019, with then-interim head coach Ali Maiden insisting “the door is absolutely never closed on her returning.”

Working with Thunder’s specialist spin coach Stephen Parry over the winter sparked something new in the 27-year-old—something she believes could swing that door wide open again.

The bowler, who will also represent Manchester Originals in The Hundred, recalled: “He said, ‘we can change your action, and you can bowl faster and turn the ball more’, and now I'm consistently turning the ball and I haven't done that for years and years, so he's given me a bit of excitement back into my game.

“I’ve been thinking, if I could beat the outside edge then I'm going to be a world-beater again, so the excitement's there and I like proving people wrong,” she concluded with a grin.

Fellow contracted players Emma Lamb and Georgie Boyce also sang the praises of the relaxed environment cultivated by Thunder’s coaching staff, which includes ex-England head of performance Paul Shaw.

The payoff is clear: Boyce made the third-highest score of the ECB County T20 competition with 96*, while Lamb was top with 116* on her way to 233 for the campaign.

Hartley, Lamb and Boyce are joined by spinner Hannah Jones and wicketkeeper Ellie Threlkeld, currently in the England Academy camp, as the five domestically-contracted players at Thunder.

Improvements to their individual games aside, the contracted players recognise the responsibility they have to the rest of their young squad.

Boyce said: “As a five, I think we're trying to pave the way for the rest of them and see what we can do and I don't think there's really a difference between us five and the rest of them, obviously we're contracted but we get treated as equal.”

Hartley agreed: “I see myself here as a role model to the younger girls. I'll play for the next five or six years, but I want to develop the next pool of players for Lancashire.”

The Blackburn native’s inspirational reach extends well beyond her native county. Hartley and co-captain Kate Cross also collaborate on No Balls: The Cricket Podcast. Earlier this month, the best friends’ project was picked up by the BBC, where Hartley also works as a pundit.

The news came as a welcome boost for Hartley, who admitted even the groundbreaking contracts weren’t quite enough to make ends meet.

She said: “It is a full-time job on a part-time wage, it doesn't quite pay the mortgage and the bills, so I need something else on the side.

“So it's fantastic that I have got that other stuff.”