England’s Lisa Keightley will depart and leave ECB with crunch decision

Arriving at Lord’s in January 2020 to attend Lisa Keightley’s first press conference, you could smell excitement in the air. This was the first female head coach to lead England in the professional era, and she had ambition. “I’m planning to be in the World Cup final,” Keightley declared.

Two months later, England were on a plane back from Australia having failed to achieve that goal, losing against India in the T20 semi-finals in Sydney, admittedly partly because of rain. Days later, the pandemic struck, putting the result very much in perspective. Suddenly, Keightley’s aspirations for the team took a backseat to navigating a new world where cricket balls were “vectors of transmission”.

The past two-and-a-half years has been a difficult period for Keightley, both professionally – negotiating the new restrictions of bubbles and “safe living” for her team – and personally, being unable for months on end to travel home to see her partner in Australia. Her decision to leave the head coach role at the end of the summer, announced on Tuesday by the England and Wales Cricket Board, therefore comes as no surprise. Effectively, Keightley has been functioning as a “lame duck” coach for the past few months, with it being common knowledge within the team that she would not be seeking an extension to her contract.

No one can blame the 50-year-old for wanting to spend time at home before she decides on her next role. And there will be offers. Keightley has experienced her share of success in the England job – taking the team to the final of the Women’s World Cup earlier this year, and blooding a group of young players this summer (Alice Capsey, Lauren Bell and Issy Wong) who already look at home in international cricket. Perhaps most