It’s been a gruelling and impressive year for Heather Knight and her team.

One test match draw, six wins out of eight one day internationals and four out of six wins for their Twenty20 efforts across the summer. It is also the first summer of The Hundred format, which has been extremely successful, both in terms of crowd sizes and buzz, alongside the chance to introduce new upcoming talent on the big stage. It’s also the first time in SEVEN years that England played a home test against a team other than Australia, taking on India in a thrilling battle that saw Katherine Brunt take on the ridiculously talented Shfali Verma, who at 17, is one of the bravest cricket players we have seen, across both the men’s and women’s games. At WSM, we have watched on with real excitement to see this sport increase in both size and format with 112 games broadcasted across Sky Sports and the BBC, it’s exciting the women’s game and the viewership numbers attest to that.

So what about defending the cup in 2022?

Well, the fact that England and Wales Cricket Board did not manage to sort a fresh pitch for the first test in seven years against India was, disappointing to say the least. If we’re to bridge the gap of parity from the men’s game to the women’s and support that there is a real appetite, commercial punch, and fanbase to propel Women’s cricket to the next level, the ECB needs to wholeheartedly commit to providing women’s cricket the platform it so richly deserves. The fact that England Women’s haven’t played at Lords since 2017 just goes to show the we need the ECB to be onboard with giving the women’s game as much of an opportunity as the men, and do that consistently moving forward. With young talent like Alice Capsey, who at just 16, attacked ferociously at The Hundred, it is this boards duty to build on this energy. There’s more work to be done in order to give players like Capsey the opportunity to bat 100 at Lords and the Oval, and feel the thunder of the crowd as she reaches the height of her professional sport.

There is no doubt that retaining this cup is not going to be a walk in the park, with teams like Australia and South Africa full of confidence, but England have the talent and stamina to make it a thrilling World Cup and with further support from the ECB in the coming years, who’s to say we can’t win in this year, and the years to come too?

One thing is for sure, WSM will be cheering along every step of the way….