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.

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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.