Introduction
Heather Clare Knight (born 26 December 1990) is an English cricketer who is captain of the England women's cricket team. She is a right-handed batsman and right arm off break bowler.
Early life
Knight was born on 26 December 1990 in Rochdale. She was educated at Plymstock School, a state secondary school in Plymouth, Devon. She was offered a place at the University of Cambridge to study natural sciences but turned it down so she would have the time play cricket. She went on to study Biomedical Sciences at Cardiff University.
Cricketing career
A prolific batsman at county level for her native Devon, Knight has played for the Diamonds, the Rubies and England Academy Women in addition to the England Women's team. She topped the county run scoring aggregates in both 2008 (390 runs) and 2009 (622).
Knight plays club cricket for Plymstock Cricket Club in the Devon Cricket League where she opens the batting for the first team. Heather started attending colts training sessions at just 8 years old and progressed through the youth system at Plymstock.
England
Knight was called into the England squad on their tour of India in 2010 as a replacement for the injured Sarah Taylor and played in the 5th One Day International on 1 March in Mumbai, opening the batting and scoring 49 on her international debut. She toured Sri Lanka with the England team in 2010, making her Twenty20 debut in the 2nd match of the series on 22 November in Colombo. She made her test debut in the one-off Ashes test at Sydney's Bankstown Oval in January 2011.
She is the holder of one of the first tranche of 18 ECB central contracts for women players, which were announced in April 2014.
On 5 June 2016, Knight was appointed captain of the England women's cricket team after Charlotte Edwards stood down.
Cricket Equipment
Knight was involved in the creation of a UK Cricket Range exclusively for women, the Heather Knight Collection. Partnering with SM Pintu and Cricket Deal Direct, working towards their shared interest in the development of Women's cricket across the UK.
The equipment range is specially designed for women, and has already sponsored a number of young developing cricketers, including Cath Dalton and Sophia Dunkley.