Wise beyond her years, Alice Capsey is forever learning
Having burst onto the scene as a teenager, England allrounder is a fixture on the international and franchise circuits
S Sudarshanan27-Sep-2024Alice Capsey’s words sometimes belie her years. “You are always going to fail more than you succeed,” she says about the vagaries of our sport, channelling the wisdom of a seasoned cricketer. But as she holds the phone still, maintaining a perfect frame without a tripod or a stand throughout our 20-minute chat, it gives a glimpse of just how young she is – only 20 years old. She is also good at this other thing – hitting the cricket ball real hard. And that has kept her quite busy in the last few years.Capsey made her international debut in July 2022 just ahead of the inaugural women’s cricket competition at the Commonwealth Games. Since then, she has played a staggering 104 T20s since her debut – in Australia, India, New Zealand and South Africa, apart from England – and has managed to adapt and leave a mark everywhere.In just her third year at the international level, she is set to feature in her second T20 World Cup, her ability to assess conditions quickly making her an important member of England’s touring party.Related
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“At the moment, the game’s evolving so quickly that you have to think where you are at within the women’s game but also where your game is at in general,” Capsey told ESPNcricinfo ahead of England’s departure to the UAE for a training camp. “It is no longer just a summer sport. You look at the next six months and there are various different tournaments.”International cricket is jam-packed now, which is really exciting. Having to be aware of where your game is at so that you stay in the mix and stay on top of your game. I have learnt to manage my game and I am always looking to learn.”I have only just turned 20, so I am pretty young, and have loads of work to do in my game. I am sure technically it’ll evolve over the next couple of years, but also a bit more tactically – all those things, you learn so much from playing international cricket and playing around the world.”Capsey’s initial period at the highest level has also coincided with the rise in T20 cricket leagues on the women’s circuit. She played in the inaugural editions of the Women’s Hundred and the Women’s Premier League, as well as in the Women’s Big Bash League. She’s stamped her mark in most of them, batting in the top order as well as picking up crucial wickets with her offspin. The lessons on countering various conditions and situations have been immense.Alice Capsey is a regular on the global franchise circuit•ECB via Getty Images”Just the amount of cricket I have played in different environments I have been in, you pick up so much by playing alongside different people,” she said. “We have got a number of world-class cricketers in this England environment; you don’t get much better than someone like Nat [Sciver-Brunt], who’s such a level head and has played for so many years now, is so experienced and knows the game so well. So, for younger players to be in the changing room with her year-in year-out, you learn so much around how she trains, how she thinks about it.”I have been lucky that the overseas players we have had at the Hundred [with Oval Invincibles], I have learnt so much from my first two years under Dane [van Niekerk]. I thought she and Marizanne Kapp were really influential in the way I go around with my batting. Just the backing I got from them gave me so much confidence.”The WPL and WBBL have been such amazing experiences, I have absolutely loved it. You always learn more from the natural conversations than you do from the necessarily forced conversations, where you are literally asking the questions. My game’s naturally evolving and that comes down to the environments I have been a part of and how the players I have been in changing rooms with have been so open about how they go about things.”I feel lucky with how I have timed it almost; it’s been like one thing after the other and over three years, I have had a different first each year to keep it new and exciting. As a player it drives you so much to get better and it’s amazing.”
“We’re in that generation of cricketers that have got a bit of fear of missing out.”Jonathan Finch, director of England women’s cricket
Being busy comes with its own challenges, though. Globe-trotting from international games to T20 leagues took its toll on Capsey and, as a result, she opted not to play regional cricket this season. She returned rejuvenated and scored her first T20I half-century since August 2023.Professionalism is still relatively new in the women’s game and so the effects are only starting to be felt. There is an array of options for youngsters like Capsey, and the need for taking a step back gets lost at times. This is where international scheduling becomes critical for a cricket board and the importance of communicating where a player stands in the scheme of things has never been higher.Jonathan Finch, director of England women’s cricket, put it this way: “You don’t do it as a one-size-fits-all and that’s where sometimes we get a little bit of criticism: ‘Why are you letting that player do that and why are you letting player do that?'”If you’ve got an 18-year-old player that suddenly hasn’t been exposed to multiple franchise competitions in a 12-month-of-the-year programme, their understanding of what that is is far less to a Heather Knight who’s been able to do that, manage themselves physically and all that kind of stuff. So, there’s an element of giving them a little bit rope to do it, failing a little bit and then coming back.”So, a Big Bash experience might be a massive development opportunity for a [young] player, whereas for someone at the back end of the career, it’s less so. Then you sit down and you have those discussions and there’s so many different things that go into that, whether that’s physical, mental, emotional, the actual cricket side of things.”We’re in that generation of cricketers that have got a bit of fear of missing out [FOMO] because a lot of new things are coming up and there’s a sensation or a feeling that ‘well if I don’t do that now I won’t get that opportunity moving forward’. The challenge for us is sometimes giving players the confidence that looking at things over the 12-, 24-, 36-month period, you can calm down a little bit and you can plan that.”But that’s probably our biggest challenge – managing individual players’ and staff programmes considering now there are ICC tournaments every year, the Women’s Championship, the next FTP, putting in your kind of big-ticket tours like Australia and India and all those types of things.”Alice Capsey celebrates a wicket•BCCIA message from her agent that read: “Renegades with a ‘tick mark’ emoji” on an early September morning confirmed Capsey’s busy time will continue after the T20 World Cup. A week after the final, WBBL 2024-25 starts with Capsey picked by Melbourne Renegades in the draft.”It happened very early, so I didn’t see where I was going until I woke up in the morning, which was a nice surprise and then had a couple of messages from the Renegades head coach and general manager,” said Capsey, who played for Melbourne Stars in the last two editions. “With my availability and so many amazing players in the draft, I was really hoping to get picked up.”I have played under Jonathan Batty [head coach at Stars, Oval Invincibles and Delhi Capitals] in all three franchises in the last three years and he’s had a big influence on my career and we have got an amazing relationship. To now be able to go and play for Renegades and just to play with new people, be in a new environment under a new coaching staff adds a bit of freshness. I’d be jumping at it to go in a new environment and just carry on learning. It’s a great opportunity for me and I am looking forward to it.”I know some of the girls there already, so there will be a few familiar faces and that will be nice. But I have been at Stars for the last two years and have so much to thank them for, for the support they had for me and the relationship I have built with Stars; I have some of my best friends there. The people I have met have been amazing and they have been such a big influence in my career.”Alice Capsey and England are keen to adapt to UAE conditions quickly•Getty ImagesOne of the immediate challenges for Capsey will be to assess and adapt to conditions in UAE. England’s training camp would have given her a chance to get used to the surfaces and the heat. And then there are a couple of warm-up matches against Australia and New Zealand. But how does she really prepare and get used to new conditions?”It is just about embracing the new challenge and asking lots of questions, that’s the key for me,” Capsey said. “It is about a few conversations and then getting the feel from a few nets. It is pretty natural, you pick things up pretty quickly.”At the end of the day, the conditions change how you play, somehow you work out what shots work the best on that pitch. But you are not going too far away from what shots you play naturally. You still want to play your way and you don’t want to stray too far away from what’s given you success so far. From that point of view, it’s about tinkering with your game and having those knowledgeable conversations with players or staff and getting a really good understanding.”We have a pretty good understanding of how hot it is going to be and we know we are going to be physically challenged in other manners to, say, how we play in England. We all will be preparing the best we can, and so when we get out there, it won’t be too much of a shock. You don’t know what’s going to be thrown at you, so staying as relaxed as possible is a good thing for me. Trying to take each day as it comes and see what’s in front of you.”