Danni Hazell claims England are 'high favorites' for the 2013 World Cup

When observing the England Women’s Cricket Team training session ahead of their tour of New Zealand, it’s clear to see that confidence is high, with the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka and the 2013 50 over World Cup in India both in England’s sights. This confidence is is personified in no-one more than 23 year old Yorkshire all-rounder Danni Hazell, originally from Esh Winning, County Durham. Hazell fully expects a repeat performance of their recent unbeaten tour of South Africa.
“We’re looking to go out there [New Zealand] as one of the best in teams in the world” Hazell told v2journal.com
“We’re looking to win every game and obviously they’re a strong side, stronger than South Africa, but we’re looking to take the bull by the horns”

“We’re going to go in [to the 2013 World Cup] as high favourites, ranked number one in the world in 50 over cricket, so we’re going to get a challenge from Australia, India at home are a very good side, and the likes of New Zealand as well, so it’s going to be a really good competition, hopefully we can take it home with us”

Watching the team complete training drills with precision and discipline shows ability within the side, with youngster Tammy Beaumont, as well as the more experienced Charlotte Edwards, Isa Guha and Danni Hazell herself looking very sharp. Coach Mark Lane demands perfection, a dropped ball results in ten sit-ups, and that was a very rare occurrence. The tag of ‘Favourites’ is something that Hazell and the rest of her England team-mates seem very comfortable with. When asked how close they were to emulating a similar kind of success to the unbeaten England side of the 1960s, Hazell replied “I’d like to think so, we’ve put a lot of work in, the last few years and we’ve really been building up to these world cups”

“This is going to be the pinnacle of our preparation over the last 3 or 4 years.”

Aside from England’s preparations for their upcoming tour of New Zealand, Danni Hazell told v2journal.com how the county cricket and international cricket schedule isn’t as congested as footballs winter months, or the Men’s cricket schedule

“We play two tours a winter and two tours in the summer, it’s not as congested as the Men’s cricket. It’s a good short series, we’re looking to work hard but it’s not as long as the Men’s”

With T20 increasing in popularity and helping change crickets image, Hazell is still confident that it wouldn’t mean the end of Test Cricket.

“It’s an exciting, exciting game and it brings in the crowds in, in both Women’s and Men’s Cricket. A lot more people come to watch and it’s brought the hitting on.”

“We don’t play as much Test Cricket as the Men, but it’s just another form of the game that people enjoy.”
You can catch England take on New Zealand on Sky Sports 3 at 1.30am on Friday the 17th of February.