Partnership announcement

 

The Anita Miles Foundation are extremely excited to announce our first partnership with Charlotte Edwards (CBE) and the Southern Vipers.

 

To have a partnership with Charlotte and the Southern Vipers is a fantastic platform for what we are trying to achieve.  There was a quote during the Wisden Cricketer of the Year announcement in 2014 about Charlotte - ‘she is a credit to women’s cricket globally and a superb role model for girls who aspire to play for their country.’  Charlotte is personally coaching our scholars on a 1-2-1 basis as well as giving them exposure to the Southern Vipers training sessions.  

Charlotte is the former captain of the England Women’s Cricket team retiring from international cricket in May 2016.  

 

Her leadership of the England team, from 2005, included winning world titles in all formats of the game.  In addition to winning awards such as ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year, Wisden Cricketer of the Year and ECB Cricketer of the Year, she was also appointed MBE in 2009 after winning the Ashes and then CBE in 2014 for her services to cricket.

 

Charlotte played her UK domestic cricket for Hampshire, Kent, and Southern Vipers, before becoming Director of Women’s Cricket at Hampshire in 2018 and then Head Coach of Southern Vipers in 2020 leading the team to the first two Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy titles.  She also coaches Southern Brave in The Hundred competition.  In 2021, the new English Domestic Women’s T20 competition, the Charlotte Edwards cup was named in her recognition.

When Charlotte made her England debut in 1996, she was the youngest player to ever play for England.  In 1997 she scored 12 centuries, including a century off 118 balls against South Africa the day before her 18th birthday, and a then-record ODI score of 173 not out in a World Cup match against Ireland.  In 2005, she stepped up from her role as England vice-captain to take full charge of the side, she was also captaining Kent at the time.

 

Charlotte played her 100th one-day international on tour in Australia and led her team to victory in the one-off test match at Bowral to retain The Ashes, scoring 94 in the first innings and hitting the winning runs in the second.  She was then named ICC Women’s Player of the Year.   She led the England team in the 2009 World Cup in Australia beating New Zealand in the super six round and the captaining the team to a 4-wicket victory against the same opposition to win the World Cup Final in Sydney.  She also led the England team to victory at Lord’s in the final of the World T20 Championship in June 2009.  Later that summer she recorded an unbeaten half century in the second innings to retain The Ashes with a draw in the one-off test in Worcester.

 

In 2014, Charlotte was named as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year, only the second English woman to do so after Claire Taylor in 2009.  Charlotte is the first female cricketer to score 2,000 runs in T20 internationals and the first player either male or female to score 2500 runs in T20 internationals. 

 

We thank Charlotte for coming on this journey with us and we hope that this will be long partnership with many of our scholars learning valuable life and cricket skills from such a decorated player. 

 

*Pictured are both Heiley Liu and Emma Lai our 2022 scholars on their first day of training with Charlotte.*