England coach Chris Guest: “This is not the endpoint in players’ careers”
Media release
As the dust begins to settle on England’s semi-final defeat at the ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup 2025, England head coach Chris Guest is already looking forward.
Guest’s side were on the wrong end of a nine-wicket defeat to India in the semi-final having lost to the same team two years ago in the final in South Africa.
The 15-strong England squad in Malaysia featured only one player from the inaugural tournament two years ago and as the players from 2023 have shone both domestically and internationally, Guest knows the 2025 edition is just the beginning for this team.
“We’ll reflect when we get back around our structures and everything like that but what we’ll take away is that we have given a fantastic opportunity to 20 young cricketers to help their careers,” he said.
“This isn’t an endpoint to any of their careers, this is a steppingstone to future development and we are really happy to have given them exposure to an overseas tour and some really competitive games.
“What the weather did is it gave us an additional knockout game against New Zealand so that became a quarter-final.
“It exposed the girls to different challenges and tries to get them ready for when they are going to experience those further down the line in their career.
“And them from a personal point of view, it is always good to pit your wits against the best in the world.
“Ultimately having sat on the wrong side of a defeat against India two years ago in the final and a defeat against India in the semi-final, it is goal of mine to establish how they are creating such high-quality cricketers and what we can do to challenge them in the future.”
England’s tournament began with an abandoned match against Ireland before impressive wins over Pakistan and the USA to top the group and reach the Super Six stage.
Another washout against Nigeria meant their game against New Zealand was a de facto knockout match and England rose to the challenge to make the last four for the second successive tournament.
But against the defending champions India, their campaign came undone as they lost six wickets for 11 runs to post 113, which their opponents chased down comfortably.
For Guest, their three wins in the competition provided three standout performances with bat, ball and gloves.
He added: “As a collective the whole group have embodied how we want to try and play cricket which is to play in a positive manner and go out there and express their skills and I think they have all done that.
“The standout individual performances were Davina Perrin’s innings against the USA, Katie Jones’ keeping against Pakistan and Tilly Corteen-Coleman bowled fantastically in the game against New Zealand.”
As Guest reflects on his second campaign with the England team, he revealed the greatest success was perhaps not the strength of England’s performances, but the strength of the opposition.
“I was fortunate enough to do the last one in South Africa so it is definitely a great opportunity to have a comparison point,” he explained.
“What excites me is the competition has got harder, teams from around the world seem to be investing in their 19s programmes which ultimately means their investment in the women’s game in general will improve as the years go on.
“That’s been the biggest success from my point of view is the global scale.
“We certainly felt like we overcame more challenge in this World Cup and that is due to other teams moving forwards and that is really exciting.”
ENDS