Soldiering on: How did England's World Cup cricket team fare at an Army boot camp?

Playing for England in a home World Cup comes with an immense amount of pride, but also a huge amount of pressure. 

In situations like this, it's crucial to understand the team around you and how to help each other perform under difficult conditions. 

That's why the England management chose to send the women's Twenty20 squad away for a weekend training with the British Army, to test their resilience and fine tune their leadership skills, ahead of one of the biggest summers of their lives.   

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The England women were hosted by the Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) for two days at the start of May.

The 15-strong group spent the weekend on a programme, which their management described as focusing on "decision-making, resilience and delivering high performance when the pressure is turned up". 

The camp involved a large number of British Army personnel, from all ranks, running a variety of command tasks and training exercises spread across Sandhurst and other surrounding camps.

What the programme entailed

In the RTR, teamwork is key due to working in a small crew inside an armoured vehicle and this was the theme for the players.

Tasks included leaderless and specified leader missions with a time pressure against the clock as well as not having all the information to work with. This results in players working as teams to provide clarity of thought under immense pressure – something coaches hope will pay off during the World Cup

The second day saw the team also put through a challenging serial which simulated a military incident which they were tasked to respond to. Players were asked to coordinate emergency services, treat casualties with first aid and balance competing casualty priorities.

It's difficult stuff and very different from the team's usual preparations, but it could give them the edge of the field.

How England players reacted

When BFBS Forces News visited the England squad at The County Ground in Derby, all-rounder Freya Kemp, batter Heather Knight and bowler Linsey Smith relived some of the highlights as they looked through footage of themselves carrying out those tasks. 

Smith said she loved the crawl challenge saying "I felt like I was on the frontline".

Kemp said they "learnt a lot" and Knight commented "it's not just about leadership followship sometimes, like how the group works together, and how the leader kind of utilises the strengths and weaknesses in the team".

All-rounder Alice Capsey imagined how she would draw on those experiences should they find themselves in a World Cup semi-final against six-time champions, Australia. 

"Even if it's just picking up one or two things that you can develop. I guess being able to put those things in place, and hopefully if we are in a semi-final against the Australians, then there might be one thing that has really stuck in the back of their head, they can bring it forward." 

Left arm spin bowler Sophie Ecclestone is one of the world's best and she enjoyed the direct nature of the soldiers they trained with. 

"It was really nice to spend three days together as a squad. Pulling on an England shirt in a semi final against Australia would be pretty cool and, yeah, we'd have to rely on each other quite a lot to do that."

Amy Jones is the England wicket-keeper and when we asked whether she would swap her day job for one in the British Army, she laughed and said: "Absolutely not! Two days was enough. We only experienced a tiny bit of what they do on a day-to-day basis at camp but yes, absolutely not. In awe." 

England won the first ICC Women's T20 World Cup in 2009 but have now gone eight tournaments, and almost two decades, without claiming the title again. 

This is the tenth iteration of the international tournament that Australia have won six times, the West Indies were victorious in 2016 and New Zealand are the defending champions. 

The 2026 version runs from 12 June to 5 July across various UK grounds, with England playing in the opening match against Sri Lanka on the evening of the 12 June at Edgbaston in Birmingham.