Charlotte Edwards

When she made her England debut in 1996, Edwards was the youngest player ever to play for England, a record she held until Holly Colvin was capped, aged 15, in 2005.

In 1997, she scored 12 centuries, including one off 118 balls against the touring South Africans. The day before her 18th birthday, she scored a then-record ODI score of 173 not out in a World Cup match against Ireland women's cricket team. In 1998–99, she scored her maiden Test hundred against India, but, while still scoring runs, her performances fell below expectations. In 2000, she was sidelined by a serious cruciate ligament injury sustained while playing hockey that caused her to miss most of the 2001 season.

In 2005, she stepped up from her role as England vice-captain to take full charge of the side while Clare Connor was injured, and was appointed full-time captain when Connor retired in March 2006. Edwards was also captaining her county Kent.

Edwards led the England team in the 2009 World Cup in Australia, scoring a half century and taking a career best 4 for 37 in the Super Six round victory over New Zealand, before captaining the side to a 4-wicket victory over the same opposition in the World Cup Final in Sydney.

She led the England team to victory at Lord's in the final of the World Twenty20 Championship in June 2009. She scored 139 runs in the tournament, the third highest total, and took 4 wickets at 14.5 apiece. Later that summer she recorded an unbeaten half century in the second innings to help England to retain The Ashes with a draw in the one-off Ashes test at New Road in Worcester.

On 17 November 2010, she won her 142nd One Day International cap when she captained England against Sri Lanka to break the world record of 141 ODI appearances held by Australia's Karen Rolton. Edwards took a career best 4 for 30 in the game. Clare Connor, the England and Wales Cricket Board's Head of Women's Cricket, praised Edwards' achievement, calling her "a credit to women's cricket globally, a superb role model for girls who aspire to play for their country".

She scored her first Ashes century in England's one-off Test against Australia at Bankstown Oval on 22 January 2010, finishing unbeaten on 114 from an England first innings total of 207 all out.

In 2014, Edwards was named as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year. She was just the second English women's cricketer to be so honoured after Claire Taylor in 2009.