Collecting an MBE at Buckingham Palace this week capped off a “fairytale” year for Kent and England captain Charlotte Edwards.
The Kent on Sunday Group sports columnist was summoned to the palace on Tuesday where she was awarded the MBE by Princess Anne for services to cricket.
It’s been a sensational calendar year for the 29-year-old who has lifted the ICC Women’s World Cup, ICC Women’s World Twenty20 and retained the coveted Ashes after a typically hard-fought series against Australia.
“It was a huge honour but not something I would have won had it not been for the rest of the team, but it is nice to get an individual accolade,” a typically modest Edwards said. “It was an incredibly humbling experience being surrounded by people that fight for the country, and to think all I do is hit a cricket ball around a field – it was an overwhelming experience.”
Having mixed with the top sports stars and lunched at Downing Street with Gordon Brown, the usually unflappable Kent skipper admitted she felt nervous at the palace without any of her team-mates around her. Having forgotten she needed to curtsey in front of the Princess, Edwards says she was practising in the corridor minutes before going to collect her MBE.
“It was great for my family to share it with me and I’ve got it at home with me to show off to people when they come round, but I’ll need to find somewhere safe to put it,” she said.
Edwards returned last week from a tour to the Caribbean where an experimental England side lost both the Twenty20 and One-Day series against the West Indies.
POSTED: 30/11/2009 08:00:00
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