England captain Kelly Smith was appalled by Australian interviewer Ian Cohen’s twirl request and said yesterday that if he had asked her she would have slapped him.

Cohen asked female players Eugenie Bouchard and Serena Williams to “give a twirl” after their respective victories last week in the Australian Open and his request immediately drew outrage from the public.

Smith described his question as “ignorance” and said: If I was (asked by an interviewer to twirl) I would probably have slapped him around the face or something. It was an insult to women’s sport.

“It shows that there still is that ignorance when it comes to women’s sport and that transfers to kids today — people think it is still OK to say things like that.

“The more we raise the profile of women’s sport through the Women’s Sport Trust and awards such as these, the bigger the chance of knocking that behaviour and ignorance out of sport and society in general.”

Speaking at the launch of Women’s Sport Trust’s #BeaGamechanger Awards — which recognises the individuals and organisations doing the most to advance women’s sport — Smith feels that the squad are under more pressure as the women’s game’s profile increases.

But the 38-year-old is looking forward to the added expectations, compared to the situation four years ago.

“The women’s game is reaching new levels in this country and being a role model is now part of the package — I never had a female sporting role model growing up so I am happy to help.

“There is money and television coming into the game now on a level we did not have four years ago. 

“The general public have been involved in the build-up and all it needs now is for the team to perform and the sport will explode again.”

After a tremendous qualifying campaign — England were unbeaten in their group — Smith believes the team are now ready to go head-to-head with the best in the game.

“We have seen a real shift in the players’ mentality over the last few years — you have to have that belief both individually and collectively that you can go out and do it,” she said.

“It is something we have probably lacked in the past but we have got it now and with the attitude we have instilled in the team we know we are capable of taking on and beating anyone in the world.”

Mark Sampson’s women prepare for the 2015 World Cup in Canada with a friendly in February against the United States before flying out for the Cyprus Cup in March where they will face Australia, Finland and Netherlands.

England have won the tournament twice and lost to France in the final last year.