Sussex Cricket’s Danni Wyatt

With England women having reached the World Cup Final (albeit they lost to the Aussies!), I thought it would be remiss of Sussex Business Times Sport not to recognise one of the finest female cricketers to represent our county, Danielle (Danni) Nicole Wyatt.

Born in Stoke-on-Trent, and with her 31st birthday this month, Wyatt scored 129 runs off 125 balls after opening the batting in the semi-final victory over South Africa in this year’s World Cup. After losing their first three round robin matches, Wyatt also scored 76 not out from 68 balls as England secured a nine-wicket victory over Pakistan.

Representing Sussex, Southern Vipers, Southern Brave and England, and with nine half centuries and three centuries to her name, Wyatt is recognised as an attacking stroke player, who can also turn her hand to bowling off spin. She made her England debut at eighteen against India, in Mumbai on 1 March 2010, scoring the winning runs as part of 28 not out from 26 balls, guiding England to a two-wicket victory. That same year she was awarded an MCC Young Cricketers contract enabling her to receive cricketing development via training at the MCC. 

Wyatt first represented Staffordshire in 2005, aged just fourteen before moving to Nottinghamshire eight years later. She signed for Sussex at the start of the 2016 season and the following summer, she was part of the England squad that won the World Cup before being named as one of the players in the ICC Women’s T20I Team of 2017.

Following her promotion to open the batting for England’s T20 International team in late 2017, she blitzed a century off 57 balls as England chased down a target of 179 in Canberra, Australia, before hammering 124 off 64 balls to overhaul a target of 199 against India in Mumbai during the Women’s T20I Tri Nations Series. This was her second Women’s T20 International century in her career, with her knock helping England to register the highest ever successful chase by any team in a Women’s T20 International match. Her innings is the highest individual score set by an opener in a WT20I match and she also recorded the second fastest century by a player in a WT20I innings, reaching her century off just 52 balls.

After playing for the Melbourne Renegades during the 2018–19 season in the Women’s Big Bash League, she was awarded a full central contract by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for 2019.

In December that year, Wyatt scored her first century in a Women’s One Day International match against Pakistan.

During 2021, she featured regularly as part of the Southern Brave team which reached the final of the inaugural season of The Hundred competition and included another Sussex player, Georgia Adams.

According to Wikipedia, Wyatt’s nickname is “Waggy” as apparently in 2015, she had explained to sports journalist Clare Balding the reason was because “The girls say I’m a wannabe WAG because I’ve dated two footballers!”