Sophie Ecclestone admits she briefly thought about leaving cricket altogether as the row surrounding England’s dismal winter, and her own knee injury, took its toll.
The left-arm spinner sat out England’s early-summer series against West Indies, opting to bowl for Lancashire instead while easing a torn meniscus and, more importantly, rebuilding her headspace. She skipped the subsequent ODIs too, saying she had to “prioritise my wellbeing”. Now, back for the white-ball matches against India and fresh from a Player-of-the-Match spell of 3 for 37 at Lord’s, she has spoken in detail about why a break felt essential.
“It was a tough time for me personally,” Ecclestone told Sky Sports before the final ODI at Chester-le-Street. “I tore my meniscus and I had a very sore knee, but I feel like personally I was so tired and so drained from the last few months.”
The winter had been bruising. England crashed out of the T20 World Cup group stage last October, were then thrashed 16-0 on points in the Ashes, and the post-mortem turned ugly. Former England spinner Alex Hartley, now a broadcaster, questioned the squad’s fitness and later said Ecclestone had refused an on-air interview and that she herself had been “given the cold shoulder” by players.
“As a cricketer, we don’t stop, we don’t get much time off and we go from franchise tournaments to England tournaments and it takes it out of you. I feel like during the West Indies series I wasn’t actually sure if I was going to come back and play cricket,” Ecclestone admitted.
Those close to the 26-year-old feared she might step away for good. Instead, time at home – and honest chats with family and two team-mates in particular – steadied her.
“I was away from cricket and I cried to a few people, I cried to my dad, I get emotional now, but it was it was a tough time. But I feel like I’ve come out the other side now and I’m back playing cricket.”
Lauren Bell and Alice Capsey, friends as well as colleagues, checked in often, while Lancashire’s quieter environment let her bowl without national-team scrutiny. The result: a fresher Ecclestone at Lord’s, flighting the ball with her usual control and enjoying it.
She remains unhappy, though, with how the Hartley interview incident was framed.
“It was a weird time,” she said. “I feel like obviously that went down the wrong way, and a few things were said, and I was just concentrating on cricket at that moment.”
Asked if the criticism had stung, Ecclestone was frank:
“A lot of things were being said which wasn’t ideal for me and it affected me quite a lot to be honest. It took a lot out of me. There were a lot of words being thrown around about me that I thought were untrue and it wasn’t very nice to hear.”
Social media, she feels, magnified everything.
“I kind of had to put that to one side, and I did go off social media for a couple of weeks actually during the Ashes, just because it was affecting me quite a lot, what was being said. It wasn’t very nice but we’ve all learnt from that now and there’s a lot of feelings involved but we’re all over that now, and ready to move on.”
Mental-health breaks are becoming more common in cricket’s congested calendar. Sports psychologist Dr Emma Kavanagh, who has worked with several county sides, notes that “elite players are essentially on tour 12 months a year, and if an injury coincides with online criticism the sense of isolation can be huge.” Ecclestone’s experience, she says, is “sadly not rare”.
England’s management back the spinner’s approach. Coach Jon Lewis told the BBC last week that giving players “room to breathe” was vital: “If you force someone back too quickly you risk losing them for good.”
Performance-wise, England need Ecclestone firing. She is already the country’s leading T20I wicket-taker and, despite the interrupted year, still boasts the best ODI economy rate in the squad. Her craft—a mix of drift, dip and subtle change of pace—remains central to England’s plans for next year’s 50-over World Cup in India.
For now, the priority is smaller: finish the current India series on a high, then grab the fortnight off that awaits. Ecclestone insists she is not looking beyond tomorrow.
“I just want to keep enjoying my cricket,” she said, a slight shrug accompanying the words. After the last nine months, that sounds achievement enough.
