The excitement of coming from behind to avoid an Ashes defeat as well as the growing finances and profile of women's cricket have persuaded Katherine Brunt to continue playing for England Women for at least another year.
The 32-year-old from Dodworth was part of the national team that won the last two Twenty20 matches to salvage an 8-8 Ashes draw in Australia, where she will remain until February to play for Perth Scorchers in the Women's Big Bash which begins this weekend.
The former Barnsley CC junior had previously said that she could retire after the Ashes but the series has convinced her to carry on at least until the World Twenty20 in the West Indies in November.
Katherine told the Chronicle: "Being out here you realise how big women's cricket is. It is the main sport for women in Australia and that is spreading to all the other countries too. The media coverage is getting so much bigger and the paygap is decreasing from the men.
"It would be very difficult for me to walk away from that having spent 13 years playing when we were earning a lot less and the profile was a lot lower. I do miss my family and friends when I am away for so long and I have a lot going on outside of cricket as well with my own property business.
"But you are a long time retired and I want to cherish it while I can still play because it will be very difficult to ever find something I enjoy doing as much. I will know when my body can't do it any more."
England lost two of the three One Day Internationals at the start of the series then drew the Test which left them 6-4 down and needing to win all three Twenty20s to claim the Ashes as a draw overall would have left the urn with the defending champions Australia.
They lost the first Twenty20 to go 8-4 down but won the next two and drew the series. Brunt said: "We are really pleased with how it went in general. We were a little bit disappointed after we left Sydney 8-4 down but but we pulled it back by winning the last two games.
"We had terrible preparation for the tour because seven of our nine practice days were rained off. We couldn't hit the ground running, whereas the Australians were playing on their home turf and they had much better preparation. We would have liked to have won it outright but we are pretty happy with the draw in the end.
"We're the best two teams in the world and we swapped places one and two in the rankings during the series with us getting top spot back now. It was always going to be about showing fight and I though we did that well and we can be proud of our performances."
Fast bowler Brunt, who has now played 177 matches for England in all formats, took seven wickets in the series to boost her tally to 221. She had a good series with the bat as she made 52 in an ODI and added a crucial 32 not out in the second Twenty20. She said: "It was nice to bat and score runs and play higher up the order at number five in the Twenty20s.
"I was a bit disappointed bowling-wise. It is hard to describe how hard it is being a seamer in modern cricket because the ball only swings for a few overs and there is hardly any pace in the pitches. I had to become an economy bowler and build pressure which was really difficult. It was the most difficult tour I have been on for bowling.
"I won some battles and lost some others but overall I wish I had done better. Usually I bowl a lot better in games than in nets but it was the other way around on this tour. It was a big occasion with bigger crowds and bigger media coverage and it can get the better of you."
