Danson believes we are living through a “golden age” for women’s sport, and the events of this summer back up that assertion. Aside from cricket, the Women’s Rugby World Cup is under way and there was the small matter of England’s Lionesses reaching the semi-finals of Euro 2017.
Their defeat by Holland was desperately disappointing, but they attracted television audiences in the millions. Such visibility is crucial in the quest to keep young women playing sport.
By age 14, girls are dropping out of sport at two times the rate of boys, according to a study by the Women’s Sport Foundation. Danson believes the conundrum can be distilled into one simple phrase: “You can’t be what you can’t see.”
“The fallout is devastating,” says Danson. “You have boys from the age of three upwards, they understand that there’s football going on, there’s cricket on the back pages. It’s very, very male dominated.
“I think there are social pressures but again, I put that down to they don’t see enough of Heather Knight, they don’t see enough of our captains. And when they do, they want to be it.”
Knight adds: “So many of the team got into the game through brothers and dads. My heroes were Marcus Trescothick and people from the men’s game. If you have those sporting role models who are females that’s great to be involved in.”