Alex Hartley has called out Sophie Ecclestone and members of the England women’s team for ‘refusing’ her TV interviews and giving her the ‘cold shoulder’ after Australia successfully retained the Ashes.
Australia remain on course to whitewash England after storming to a comprehensive 57-run victory in the opening T20 in Sydney, which sealed them the series at the earliest possible opportunity.
The result ensured the hosts took an 8-0 lead in this winter’s multi-format series Down Under, with England only able to draw if they triumph in all of their remaining matches.
Australia have been in control of the urn for the last decade and will no doubt be looking to inflict further misery on the touring side when the series resumes with the second T20 at Canberra’s Manuka Oval on Thursday.
‘They have been [miles away from Australia],’ former England spin bowler Hartley said of the tourists’ first T20 loss to Australia on the BBC TMS podcast.
‘Australia, in the first two ODIs, didn’t play their best and England couldn’t capitalise on that having bowled Australia out for 180 in that second ODI.
‘England weren’t able to chase it down and since then Australia were able to come back and they’ve come back with a bang.
‘It’s very, very rare that this Australia side give you a sniff. When they do, you’ve got to capitalise on that and England haven’t been able to.
‘We look at this England side and we look at them dominate world cricket when they’re playing bilateral series. But when it comes to the Ashes and World Cup, they just haven’t been able to dominate.
‘Australia are the team that have dominated over the last ten or 15 years and you look at these two sides now and Australia are just better.’
Hartley has not been afraid to voice her opinions in recent years and took aim at England’s fitness levels in the wake of the side’s elimination from the Women’s T20 World Cup last October.
‘I’m not going to name names, but if you look at them, you know. You know who’s blowing a gasket and who isn’t,’ she said at the time.
‘About 80 per cent of the England team are fit and athletic enough, but there are girls in that side who are letting the team down when it comes to fitness.
‘It’s really disappointing, isn’t it? West Indies played a totally different game to England. There are going to be a lot of questions asked and some of them, rightly so, on fitness. England need to get fitter.’
Hartley has not been alone in calling out England’s apparent lack of fitness and athleticism, with Lauren Winfield-Hill making similar comments in the wake of last year’s World Cup.
However, after Monday’s one-sided T20, Hartley claimed that she had been ‘hung out to dry’ by the England team as a result of her remarks.
‘Sophie Ecclestone refused to do a TV interview with me today,’ Hartley – a key member of England’s World-Cup-winning side of 2017 – explained.
‘I’ve been hung out to dry by the England team, none of them will talk to me on the boundary edge.
‘The reason I said that they were not as fit as Australia is because I want them to compete with Australia, I want them to be better than Australia and I want them to win Ashes series and World Cups.
‘I’m giving my opinion and I’ve been given the cold shoulder by the England team ever since.’
Asked whether the players’ reaction had surprised her, Hartley replied: ‘Yeah, it really, really surprises me.
‘And not all of them have given me the cold shoulder. I don’t want to say that they’ve all been the same because they haven’t.
‘Some of the players have been absolutely outstanding. I’ve spoken to them in the street, at the ground, whatever, but a few individuals, coaches, players, they literally haven’t looked at me.
‘And as I say, Ecclestone refused to do an interview with me today.’
Hartley believes the way she has been treated by certain members of the England camp has been ‘totally unfair’.
‘I’ve upset them, clearly,’ she added.
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‘I guess so [they think her comments were unfair] because Jon Lewis has come out and said there isn’t a problem with fitness in his squad, there isn’t a problem with fitness in the England environment.
‘They’ve obviously think I’m completely wrong in my opinion which is fine. I’m entitled to my opinions and they’re entitled to their opinions.
‘It’s my job to say if I see something that needs to be better and I did, but the way that I’ve been treated since, I think, is totally unfair.
‘But they will say that my comments were unfair so if that’s the way our relationship is going to be moving forward, then so be it.’
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