Charlotte Edwards

Player: England (1996-)

Few women have achieved more in the game than England's record run scorer and double world champion captain Charlotte Edwards.

A batsman of the highest ability, Edwards has been dominant in the international game since becoming the youngest woman to play for England as a precocious 16-year-old. Edwards quickly proved she had an international temperament to match her talent, scoring heavily at all levels including a then-record women's ODI score of 173 against Ireland in the 1997 World Cup while still 17.

After a period disrupted by injury in 2001, the Ashes were sensationally won after an absence of 42-years in 2005, with Edwards contributing from the top of the order, and the women were paraded alongside the victorious men at the Trafalgar Square open-top bus parade.

In 2006 Edwards assumed the England captaincy from Clare Connor on a full time basis, and set about building arguably the most successful era in England's history.

The early stages were tricky, as a home defeat to New Zealand proved, but the turning point came in a triumphant Ashes defence in Australia in 2007.

The win, and subsequent victories over New Zealand and India, was the catalyst for a sensational 2009, when the World Cup was won in convincing manner in Australia before the side added the Twenty20 equivalent to the trophy bag later in the summer, beating the Kiwis in a Lord's final.

Edwards also works as a Chance to Shine Ambassador, helping the campaign bring cricket to state schools throughout the UK. She is one of two WCC members (alongside Kumar Sangakkara) still playing international cricket and is poised to become the highest run scorer in women's ODI history.

Edwards joined the WCC in April 2012.

Video: Charlotte Edwards - MCC vital to the women's game