England women 'need to get fitter', says World Cup winner Alex Hartley as she claims there are 'girls in the side letting the team down'

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The England women’s team are being let down by a handful of unfit players, according to Alex Hartley, one of their 2017 World Cup winners.

England were dumped out of the T20 tournament in the group stage by West Indies in Dubai on Tuesday after dropping six catches in a dreadful fielding display that left captain Heather Knight in tears.

And Hartley, a former left-arm spinner who played 32 white-ball internationals, told BBC’s Test Match Special: ‘There are going to be a lot of questions asked, and some of them, rightly so, on fitness. England need to get fitter.

‘Australia have got 15 or 16 genuine athletes. You look at our team – I’m not going to name names, but if you look at them, you know. You know who’s blowing a gasket and who isn’t: 80% of the England team are fit and athletic enough, but there are girls in that side that are letting the team down when it comes to fitness.

‘There will be questions around the captain, management, fitness, around what goes on in this England side, and rightly so. These girls are being paid hundreds of thousands of pounds now, and it makes a huge difference.’

Alex Hartley says England women are being let down by a handful of unfit players

England were dumped out of the T20 tournament in the group stage by West Indies

Asked whether he thought the women’s team had a fitness issue, Richard Gould – the ECB chief executive who is currently in Multan with the men’s Test side – said: ‘Athleticism in cricket is increasingly important. We want to provide whatever support we can to all our players.

‘We’ve under-invested in the women’s game for a long time. In 2019, we had 18 professional women players. Next year, we’ll have closer to 200. 

'That’s a lot of progress in a short amount of time and there will be things that we want to continue to improve on.’