Charlotte Edwards: Lord's portrait unveiling caps 'whirlwind' month

When Charlotte Edwards first entered the Lord's pavilion as a 17-year-old, to play South Africa in 1997, Marylebone Cricket Club was still a year away from its seminal vote on accepting female membership of the club, and as a consequence she and her fellow players were not permitted to enter the field of play via the Long Room at Lord's.

Almost 30 years later, Edwards has now been installed as a permanent fixture in that same iconic room, following the grand unveiling of her official MCC portrait at Lord's on Thursday night. Depicted on the home dressing-room balcony, kitted out in her 2009 T20 World Cup-winning kit, and positioned by the northern-most window of the room with her gaze permanently fixed on the centre of the pitch, it is an evocative installation that epitomises the extent to which Edwards has become utterly synonymous with the self-styled Home of Cricket.

"I'm obviously very proud, and obviously very pleased with the portrait as well," Edwards said. "I knew that I wanted it to be on the balcony, because that was how I remember Lord's and I even wore my 2009 kit, which I somehow got into after a few years. When I saw it, I was like, 'wow, this is pretty special', and to walk in there tonight and see where it's been placed, I couldn't be happier."

The honour caps a momentous month for Edwards, and the women's game as a whole. On April 1, she was unveiled as the new head coach of the England Women's team (and will be back at Lord's in that capacity in July for the second ODI against India), while the start of the new tiered county competition this month marked another vital staging post in the sport's accelerated development.

"There's been a lot happening in the last few weeks for me, it's been quite a whirlwind," she said. "So this feels like a nice end to a really manic last three weeks for me, really.

"I was lucky enough to be at Trent Bridge this week," she added, where Lancashire landed an eight-wicket victory against Nottingham-based The Blaze. "I just loved watching it, because it was just so pure. It's so genuine. I was sitting on my own at about half past nine, watching both teams warming up, and I was just so excited and proud of where women's cricket is at. I was proper chuffed when I went to bed last night thinking, 'this is the future of the game now'.

"I'm going to go to Hove this weekend to watch Yorkshire and Sussex in Tier 2, and it's so important for the game, to think that some of these young players have got that real goal now of playing Tier 1 cricket. It feels like it's given women's cricket a massive lift, and it's obviously a good time for me to take over and be involved in all of this."

Clearly, the substance of women's cricket is what matters most at this juncture, yet the symbolism of Edwards' honour should not be underestimated either. There are some 3000 paintings in the MCC's vast collection, including 287 official portraits. Hers is just the third of a woman to have been commissioned, following those of Rachael Heyhoe Flint and Claire Taylor.

Painted by Hero Johnson, whose previous commissions include Lord Puttnam and Michael Bond, the creator of Paddington Bear, the process required patience and focus - traits for which Edwards was clearly renowned. "I got the email [confirming the commission] around two-and-a-half years ago," she said, "and then I came in at the end of September 2023 for about three or four sittings, and it went from there."

According to Charlotte Goodhew, MCC Collections and Programmes Manager, the artist's brief was to capture Edwards' "personality, her energy, her focus, as well as a true likeness of her". To that end, the process involved numerous different settings, including a sitting at her second home at Hampshire's Utilita Bowl, and three separate portraits - which it is hoped will be put on public display when they are completed.

However, it was ultimately decided that Lord's and Edwards was the only composition that made sense, which is both ironic and fitting, when you consider the journey to recognition that she epitomises.

"Lord's is the only ground I ever wanted to play at growing up," she said. "I watched the 1993 [Women's] World Cup on the BBC, just dreaming that one day that I'd get to play there, and to captain a World Cup-winning team here has to be the pinnacle of anyone's career, really. Now to think there's a portrait of me now is amazing. I've never, ever taken it for granted, because I know how special this place is."

And, as Goodhew adds, the positioning of the painting in the Long Room caused a chain reaction of rearrangement, with Glenn McGrath, the previous incumbent in that spot, sent across to the opposite corner of the room, and the Earl of Winchilsea - in his powdered wig and 18th-century finery - cut from the squad for the time being.

"It's huge for the women's game, like having the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Gates," Edwards said, of the Eastern entrance to the ground that was renamed in her honour in 2022. "It's recognition of some of the wonderful players that have played and done so much for the game as well. But I never could have expected a portrait at Lord's. When you look at the other names around the outside, I've never, ever seen myself in that light. But it's a proud day for my family, knowing they're all here, proper smiling, and coming down to witness a special occasion."