When Test star Mohammad Rizwan approached Alex Hartley to ask about the spin-bowling plans for the new batsman during this year’s Pakistan Super League, she knew she had been accepted into a world that would once have seemed more like another planet. But she could be forgiven for having her doubts.

A few months earlier, her agent Luke Sutton had taken a call from Ali Tareen, owner of PSL franchise Multan Sultans, wondering whether Hartley fancied a coaching gig.

Hartley tells Mail Sport: ‘I laughed and said: “You’ve got to be winding me up, haven’t you?” Luke said no. Obviously that’s an opportunity you can’t turn down. There and then I said: “Of course, I’d love to go.”’

It was, to put it mildly, a leap into the unknown. Hartley had made her name first as a left-arm spinner good enough to play 28 white-ball internationals for England – including the 2017 World Cup final win over India – and then as a commentator for Test Match Special. She is back in Multan now, working on the men’s Test series for the BBC. But coaching? Not so much.

The Sultans, who had already signed up Ireland’s Catherine Dalton to work with their seamers, were unconcerned.

But the team was keen to enhance their bowling support staff after adding Catherine Dalton (left) to their ranks

Hartley soon found herself immersed in a new environment in the socially conservative city

‘At that level, it’s not really technical coaching,’ says their general manager Hijab Zahid. ‘Most of it is to do with how to take advantage of conditions and your opponents’ weakness. Alex has that mindset of going for the kill. She’s played a lot of T20 and has won a World Cup. So we thought she’d be a very good influence on a lot of our bowlers.’

Even so, there was apprehension about placing a foreign woman in a high-profile position in Pakistan’s best-loved sport. The World Economic Forum’s global gender-gap index this year ranked the country 145th out of 146, only a fraction ahead of Sudan and behind even Iran.

The WEF report goes on: ‘The traditional norms around gender restrict women to the private realm, tending to the roles of reproduction and care.’

And Multan is socially conservative, even by Pakistani standards. Women are hard to spot in daily life, unless they’re being ferried around town on the back of motorbikes by their husbands. It is not the obvious melting-pot for a social revolution.

‘There was a little bit of nerves from both sides,’ says Hartley. ‘How do we act in front of them? On the first day everyone was there, and Ali said it was my turn to speak. I thought: “Oh s***, here we go.”

The former England international has spent much of her post-playing career as a commentator

Multan Sultans enjoyed a strong season in the Pakistan Super League and topped group stage

Mohammad Rizwan was among the players to quickly show Hartley respect in her new role

‘I was really nervous, but I said: “Look, you’re the most important people. Whatever happens in this competition isn’t about me – it’s about you.” I basically said everything I’d have wanted to hear as a player. As soon as you say that, they are going to respect you.

‘But certain religious people won’t shake your hand. At the end of games, I tucked in behind Hijab, and if she didn’t shake someone’s hand, I wouldn’t. And after you’d played them once, you knew it. It almost became second nature.

‘I was quite quiet for three or four days. After a couple of weeks, me and Cath turned round to each other and said: “Everyone’s changed a bit here, everyone seems a bit more relaxed.”’

‘And there was an instance when Rizwan came up to me during a game, and said. “What’s the plan to this batsman, Alex, as a spin bowler?” That was the moment I knew the whole team respected, or backed, what I did.’

For Rizwan, who tends not even to look female interviewers in the eye, this felt like a big moment. Zahid says the players were ‘super-respectful’. She adds: ‘I see it as a sign of progress if, as a society, we can eliminate the barrier of gender.’

Hartley was keen to follow the lead of her colleagues when it came to observing customs (pictured at a social event with Dalton, centre)

Hartley worked with the PSL’s leading wicket-taker, Sultans spinner Usama Mir (pictured right)

It helped that the Sultans were having a good PSL, topping the group stage with seven wins out of 10, and reaching their third final in a row – only to lose (for the third final in a row) by two runs to Islamabad United in Karachi.

And it did Hartley’s early reputation no harm that the tournament’s leading wicket-taker was a Sultans spinner, leggie Usama Mir.

Does she see herself as a trailblazer? ‘I’m blasé about a lot of things in my life. But when I sit back and see what we’ve done and see it on the news in Pakistan and all over the internet, I do then realise we have been trailblazers.

‘Hopefully we’ve shown that women can have equal rights in Pakistan. It’s a lot more than a coaching position. I’m hoping it will be the start of changing things in Pakistan.’

In that respect, Pakistan are ahead of England, where men routinely coach women, but not vice versa. The best-known example of a female coach of a male team in any British sport is Hannah Dingley, who was briefly caretaker manager of Forest Green FC after the sacking of Duncan Ferguson in July 2023.

Why has English cricket so far proved resistant to change? ‘It’s a great question, isn’t it,’ says Hartley. ‘I know it’s something a few teams have looked at doing.

Multan Sultans finished a close second behind winners Islamabad United (pictured at the final in March 2024)

Hartley believes she has been a trailblazer during her time in Multan after seeing the impact of her appointment on social media

The Sultans hierarchy are hopefuly that Hartley returns for 2025’s tournament after exceeding expectations

‘For example, could Charlotte Edwards coach a men’s team? Absolutely, with her record. Teams would be chomping at her to do it. Sarah Taylor’s done a bit with Sussex and Manchester Originals. Lisa Keightley, the ex-England coach, went out to South Africa. It’s happening.

‘The thing we don’t want is for it to become a tick-box exercise: just have a women on your staff. If I’m not good enough to be at Multan next year, that’s fine – but I don’t want to become a tick-box exercise for any team.’

Zahid says the Sultans are hoping Hartley returns for next year’s PSL, starting in April. ‘She went beyond our expectations. I saw her during training sessions, and at mealtimes and she was always looking at videos on her iPad. I was like: “Alex, take a break!” She was always on it, always involved. I expected her to be great, but I think we got a lot more than that.’

England should beware golf trap 

I can’t say I have a problem with Bazball England’s love of golf: it means they don’t spend more time than necessary thinking about cricket, and in Multan – where there is little else to do before and between games – it is keeping spirits up.

But a section of fans have cottoned on to the constant golfing references, and discerned a lack of seriousness. When Brendon McCullum explained away bowling coach Jimmy Anderson’s absence from the start of the Multan Test because he was back in St Andrew ‘swinging the clubs’, it only irritated them further.

There’s a danger of tone-deafness – and England need to be careful. Most fans would happily ignore the golf if it was out of sight, out of mind. But when it is perceived – rightly or wrongly – to be getting in the way of the cricket, that’s when the problems can start.

Smooth showing in Sharjah  

England’s win over South Africa in the women’s T20 World Cup in Sharjah on Monday was a reminder that their side include two all-time greats. Sophie Ecclestone took two for 15 with her unerring left-arm spin, confirming her status as the world’s top-ranked T20 bowler (she’s miles ahead at the top of the ODI rankings too). 

Sophie Ecclestone’s command performance with the ball helped England to victory over South Africa on Monday

And Nat Sciver-Brunt, cricket’s premier all-rounder, took charge of England’s chase of 125 on a sticky pitch, finishing the game with a lordly drive over extra cover to take her to 48 off just 36 balls. It’s a shame their exploits aren’t being brought to a wider audience. England are lucky to have them.

Cold comfort for Bazball

Hats off to Pakistan captain Shan Masood, who was honest enough to admit that England’s Test team have ‘had an effect on the world’. While others have mocked England, Masood has studied them. As if to prove the point, he then thrashed a run-a-ball century on the first day of the series in Multan.