By Matt Somerford
Katherine Brunt believes the new contract system for the England Women players will help extend her career until the 2017 World Cup.
The England and Wales Cricket Board announced earlier this month that, for the first time, it had awarded professional deals to 18 players.
The news has provided much-needed security for Brunt, as well as the time required to embark on a painstaking recovery from thesecond back surgery of her career.
The 28-year-old seamer went under the knife in March after she was struck down by the injury during victory over Australia in the one-off Test match at Perth in January.
Brunt admits the surgery was “more drastic” than her first procedure, back in 2007, and she has been forced into a slowed rehabilitation that could yet see her ruled out of the entire summer.
The seamer has hardly enjoyed a “fairly boring” recovery process – especially after one of the most successful periods in England’s history saw them claim back-to-back Ashes - and admitted it had provoked thoughts of giving the game away.
It is a notion that Brunt has been able to dismiss with greater certainty thanks to the security of her new contract.
“There is a lot less worry,” she told ecb.co.uk.
“You are scared that if you are injured for too long then your career is in jeopardy.
“I’ve seen it before with other players who panic and decide they have to make a career outside cricket. It is understandable.
“The ECB has always been very supportive but with the contract system in place there are things now to offer more security.
“We now know we are going to get x amount. I have a mortgage to pay. There are only three or four in the squad who have a mortgage but that has to be paid.
“The days where you have to live at home into your mid-thirties are gone.
“But on top of the financial stuff we have more time to work on injuries and other things such as tactics."
The extra time and care she has been able to take has allowed Brunt to deliberately undertake a slowed recovery plan, despite surgery going better than expected.
“The doctor called me his ‘miracle hero’ with the way the procedure went,” she said.
“Despite that we are taking the recovery slowly. There is no sense in rushing it.
“I have had more and more injury problems as I’ve gone along - that's being a bowler I suppose - and I don’t want to have a setback.
“It does make you consider it (retirement) when you are in this position.
"But I am now down from five-hour days of recovery - which were rubbish and fairly boring. I'm at a stage now where I do an hour a day. I feel a lot better.
"I have this new lease of life now and I would love to push on and play in the 2017 World Cup here in England.
“Who knows? If we win the tournament and I have a good tournament myself then that might be a good time to go out.
“But I just don’t know; perhaps I’ll decide then to become a spinner and carry on.
“Charlotte (Edwards) and I have always said that as long as the passion remains then we will keep on going and the passion definitely remains as strong as ever.”
For now Brunt is focussed on trying to get back on the park, with her immediate target to begin walking through her bowling action in mid-June.
There are hopes she could return to playing by the end of July – which would be in time for India’s tour in August.
South Africa follow for three NatWest Twenty20 internationals in September, but the right-armer is prepared for the worst-case scenario of being ruled out until the winter tour of New Zealand.
“It is a case of just waiting and making sure that I am ready,” she said.
“It may be that I play in both series this summer or it might be that I miss India and play South Africa.
“There is the chance, too, that I could miss both series and get myself ready for the Kiwi winter tour instead.
“I’d love to tell you exactly when I’ll be ready because I wish I knew. We will just have to wait and see. I don't see any sense in rushing and I don't need to.”