Asked afterwards what those pay hikes would do for the women’s game, Keightley was frank in her assessment.
“It’s really changing fast, isn’t it? And I suppose the three powerhouses – India, England, and Australia – having a very competitive T20 competitions – it’s really driving the women’s space and the pay equity,” she told ESPNcricinfo. “We’re not there, but it’s moving and it’s moving pretty fast, so that’s really good.
“The only thing I’m disappointed in is I look around the room and I’m the only female head coach. So for me, waving the flag and hopefully as we move into cricket, we get a few more female head coaches here.
“In saying that, we’ve got a few coaching internationally and I’m really hoping that a lot of the staff have female coaches within their coaching set-up, so from that point of view, it’s moving quick, but looking around being the only female coach, that’s a bit disappointing to be totally honest.”
Former England bowler Shrubsole is steadily building her coaching credentials, having worked under Charlotte Edwards as a player-coach at Southern Vipers and been bowling coach for Royal Challengers Bangalore’s in their WPL-winning season this year.
Taylor, the former England wicketkeeper, has an already impressive coaching portfolio which includes assistant roles across men’s and women’s teams, including Manchester Originals, England Lions and WPL side Gujarat Giants.
Keightley was speaking off the back of extensive coaching experience with the likes of England, Australia, Perth Scorchers, Sydney Thunder, Delhi Capitals, Mumbai Indians and Northern Superchargers, whom she took to the 2025 Women’s Hundred title before they became Superchargers Leeds under new ownership for this season.
She is therefore in prime position to offer them and any women considering lead coaching roles some words of advice.
“As females, you always think you’re not ready and you’re happy to be an assistant, but I think the only way you get in there and do it is if you get the opportunity, take it, get in there, do it,” Keightley said. “If someone says they want you to be a head coach, don’t think you’re not ready. You’ve got to jump at the chance, be brave and back yourself and put good people around you and you’ll be fine.”
She acknowledged it would take time to get more women in head coaching roles globally.
“It’s a tough one,” she said. “It will change over time and it’s just players getting back into the system, having opportunity and finding their way through their journey and hopefully moving forward.
“This will be a different space we’re in, but you’re competing in an open playing field, so you just shouldn’t get the position. You shouldn’t get the opportunity unless you’ve, I suppose, put in the hard yards and you get respected as a coach across the competitions and franchises. Let’s wait and see over the next five years if that slowly changes.”
MI London also won a bidding wrangle with Welsh Fire and Sunrisers for uncapped wicketkeeper-batter Kira Chathli, who went for £80,000 after she finished the 2025 season sixth on the run-scorers’ list with 220 runs at an average of 24.44 and a strike rate of 150.68 at crosstown rivals London Spirit.
“Look, it would have maybe been nice to get another power hitter in the top five, but in saying that, at The Oval, you’ll still be able to find the boundary and when we go away, it might look a little bit different in how we accumulate our runs, but we’ve still got some batting there, especially up top with our openers,” Keightley said.
“If they can bat quite long, I think that sets us up really well. And having Chathli, obviously how she played last year, I think she could have an impact in our top order as well.
“So all in all, I think we’ve got all bases covered and it just depends how we gel and how we start quick and play under pressure. I think we bat right down to nine, which will be really handy in this competition.”
Valkerie Baynes is a general editor, women’s cricket, at ESPNcricinfo
