Clare Connor OBE (ENG)
Like so many of the players in the Lashings World XI squad, Clare Connor is very much an icon of the game, but in her case it's in a very different way and for very different reasons. Her role in bringing women's cricket to the level it's at now simply cannot be overstated - she was appointed captain of the England Women's team in 2000 and over the course of the next five years she moulded the team into one of the top international sides, instilling high levels of professionalism into what was essentially an amateur side, with all the players having to balance their cricketing lives against work and study. Clare herself was no exception, juggling her cricket career with a job teaching English and PE at Brighton College. Her work with the team culminated in the high point of her career when she led England Women to their first Ashes trophy for 42 years in 2005 and became the most recognisable female cricketer since Rachael Heyhoe-Flint. Her achievements also led to her being awarded the OBE for services to cricket - something that apparently looks great on the mantelpiece alongside the MBE she received in 2004!
However, that Ashes series turned out to be the final act of her international career as a persistent injury caused premature retirement, aged just 29. She joined Lashings soon after and remains an excellent role model and ambassador for the women's game, regularly taking wickets and bruising the egos of those opposition batsmen who can't handle the concept of getting out to a girl! She continues to have a big effect on the development of the women's game as she has recently been appointed the Director of Women's Cricket at the ECB and sits on the ICC Women's Committee. Since starting that job in January, she has already overseen the England Women retaining the Ashes in Australia (something the England Men conspicuously failed to do!) and has been successful in something she has been campaigning towards for some years - awarding ECB central contracts to some of the England Women's team, making them the first female full time professional cricketers in the world.
Click here to see Clare's profile on Cricinfo
