Heather Knight puts ECB ban behind her as England prepares for World Cup opener

Heather Knight puts ECB ban behind her as England prepares for World Cup opener

Heather Knight, England's captain, says that the test of leading her team into the Women's T20 World Cup has her full focus, and insists that "the line has already been drawn" on the disciplinary measures taken against her for a historic "blackface" photograph that appeared on social media recently.

Knight, 33, was last week reprimanded and given a suspended £1000 fine by the Cricket Discipline Commission, after a compromising extravagant dress photograph surfaced on Facebook, dating back to a party in 2012, when she was 21. While it was accepted by the Cricket Regulator that there was "no racist intent in her conduct", Knight said in a statement that she was "truly sorry" and had "long regretted it".

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Presently, speaking just before England's T20 World Cup opener, against Bangladesh in Sharjah on Saturday, Knight turned the focus squarely to the task at hand for her team, as they seek to improve on their semi-final finish at the last event in South Africa two years prior, and land their first ICC worldwide title since 2017.

It was obviously something that has been ongoing the last several months and it is something, as far as I am concerned, that has been addressed, and something that was quite a while in the past, so it hasn't been in my mind at all," Knight said.

"The line has already been drawn, in my opinion, so I am really excited, obviously, for what is to come. We have got super supportive gathering, there is no question about that, so definitely, I'm pretty glad to get cracking with the cricket."

India Women vs New Zealand Women, 4th Match, Group A

England came through an unbeaten home summer, winning 13 out of 14 matches against New Zealand and Pakistan, with just a washout at Taunton denying them a decisive victory. In addition to Bangladesh, they will play against Scotland, West Indies and South Africa in the World Cup bunch stage, with their two likeliest rivals for the title, Australia and India, awaiting them in the other portion of the draw.

"Australia are going to be favorites, without a doubt," Knight said of the defending champions, who have won six of the last seven stagings of the T20 World Cup, dating back to 2010. "Obviously, their success in this event has been immense, but we feel in a great spot. We've been playing some brilliant cricket, and while the first objective is to get out of the gathering stages, we're pretty confident in what we bring. We believe we can beat anybody on our best day."

South Africa Women vs West Indies Women, 3rd Match, Gro...

A lot of England's summer was spent honing a side that could compete in spinning conditions, with Bangladesh having been the World Cup's original host country. The event has since moved to the UAE for security reasons, but Knight is confident that England's spin contingent - drove by the ICC's No.1-positioned bowler in white-ball cricket, Sophie Ecclestone - will thrive at a tournament that, to decide by the tournament's opening fixtures, already appears to incline toward slow bowling.

"We feel extremely prepared for what we've got to come, and presently it's just about executing it and being really smart about how we get things done in-game," Knight said. "We've obviously got the quality spin attack. It's been our big strength, particularly through those middle overs, how we really squeeze teams and try and rush them in that middle period."

England opted to disregard the extra speed of Lauren Filer for this tournament, instead relying on Lauren Chime as a sole specialist seamer, upheld by a trio of seam-bowling allrounders in Nat Sciver-Brunt, Freya Kemp and Dani Gibson. Charlie Senior member and Sarah Glenn also offer batting depth as spinning allrounders, meaning that England - on paper, at least - have an enviably versatile squad.

"We've got great options, which is the nice thing," Knight said. "The depth that we've got allows us to play based on the conditions that we face, and the team that we're playing against.

"It's not going to be easy picking the team, but we're pretty set on the little tweaks that we might have to make to get the most out of the conditions and teams that we're playing against.

"There are going to be times where we are going to have to graft a little bit, the boundaries are big and there might be times when we get on slow wickets where we are going to have to adapt to what is in front of us and be really smart with how we go about things."

Both Kemp and Sciver-Brunt were overseen back to bowling fitness during the summer, after coming through back and knee issues respectively. But Knight was adamant that each was in the right spot to deliver a full all over job for the cause.

"The allrounders are the fittest in the team, because of the job they have to do," she said. "Freya, in particular, she's super impressive with how she's returned from that [second] stress fracture, and the work that she's put in to be in a spot to play out, it's been brilliant