Sophie Ecclestone Exclusive: In evolving women's cricket, mental break is 'massive'

There are very few cricketers as accomplished across formats as Sophie Ecclestone. The world No. 1 in ODI and T20 has been a constant at the top of the ICC women’s bowling rankings, having reached the summit in the shortest format at 20 years old.

Now, 24, Ecclestone has 233 wickets across three formats which have been achieved on the back of her left-arm spin bowling that combines accuracy, turn and bounce in equal measure. Unlike other left-arm spinners, the Chester-born England bowler is not just economical, but a constant wicket-taking threat with a strike rate of 34.5 and 15.3 respectively in ODI and T20.

One of the biggest names in world cricket, Ecclestone also has rich experience of playing in the biggest T20 Leagues across the world – The Hundred, Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) and Women’s Premier League (WPL). After featuring for Supernovas and Trailblazers in Women’s T20 Challenge, Ecclestone was snapped up by UP Warriorz for Rs 1.8 crore for the inaugural season of WPL last year.

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The all-rounder, who is also known for some meaty blows from the lower-order, is back in India for second season of WPL. Her participation in the 2024 season was earlier in doubt with England’s series against New Zealand clashing with the Indian T20 league, but despite Heather Knight and Lauren Bell pulling, some of the big names form England decided to honour their WPL contracts.

Firstpost caught up with the world No. 1 spinner to find out her views of the changing landscape of the women’s cricket, clash between country and franchise scheduling, difference between The Hundred, WBBL and WPL and her love for Indian culture.

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Excerpts:

A brand new season of WPL. Now that the transition has happened from Women’s T20 Challenges to WPL, what are your impressions of the T20 league?

Ecclestone: Yeah, obviously it’s very exciting. I think WPL has been great for Indian cricket and worldwide cricket and women’s sport. I think it’s something that a lot of eyes are on. A lot of girls are playing cricket now growing up and have got idols on TV to watch. Hopefully it goes from strength to strength and continues progressing.

You are one the top players who plays across the biggest T20 leagues. Can you compare The Hundred, WBBL and WPL?

Ecclestone: Obviously it’s very different in India. Indian girls are great and it’s a very different culture. It’s very exciting to see new places, but yeah, the culture is so different here. The Hundred, it’s obviously in England, that’s obviously my home. And WBBL is a lot of travelling. Hopefully in a few years time, we can go to UP and play there. That’d be really nice and have some home games there.

I really enjoy my time in India. I’m playing in front of the people as they love cricket and they love the culture of it.

Is there an Indian player you’re close to and can you shed light on the relationship?

Ecclestone: There’s Shweta (Sehrawat). She won the World Cup U19s, and I got to know her last year as a person and as much as a cricketer, and I’ve seen her this year, and she’s improved so much. She’s obviously gone away, worked on her game and I’m so proud of her and so pleased with how much she’s come along and it’s just great to get to know her upbringing, it’s very different to mine.

I think it’s really nice for me to have a fresh person come in and she loves training. She lives for training and she loves playing cricket. She loves hitting balls and I wish she could teach me that. She can teach me a few things on how to get better at batting because she hits a lot, she hits a lot of balls a day and I don’t really hit that many.

One of the things about T20 leagues is that it brings so many opponents together and has led to players being less aggressive against each other. Is that really a case?

Ecclestone: Yeah. It’s great to get to know everyone, but obviously it’s weird to be playing in the same team as people like Deepti (Sharma) and then going against the next year in a World Cup or this year in a World Cup. So, It’s weird. Obviously it’s really interesting to get to know people and they get to know you cricketer as well and how you work.

England announced two squads for the New Zealand series. The landscape in women’s cricket is changing. How do you see it going forward? How do you see the balance between country vs franchise?

Ecclestone: Cricket is there every month. If you wanted to do that, you could play every month for the rest of your life. For the next 10 years. But it’s really interesting. You just got to make sure you get time off when you can.

It’s massive for me to get a mental break because it can mentally drain and go from tournament to tournament and being away from home. So I think it’s  important to make sure I get a break every now and again, but I love playing cricket. I love being part of this competition. So playing as many as I can would be lovely. But I think getting time away is obviously also important.