Girls’ cricket hitting sixes
Last year, my daughter announced she was desperate to start playing cricket. I tried to sign her up to our local cricket club, only to find that cricket has been in such high demand for girls that there was a 12-month waiting list!
There is no doubt that it is an inspiring time for girls and women in cricket worldwide. After all, in 2017, England beat India in a dramatic Women’s Cricket World Cup Final. More than 27,000 spectators piled into the home of cricket, with millions more watching on TV around the world. Many women and young girls witnessed one of the most remarkable comebacks ever seen at Lord’s. In many respects, England women’s world cup win has transformed the face of cricket.
Recent initiatives in the UK have given women and girls more opportunities to play, such as All Stars Cricket for 5–8-year-olds. The ECB (England & Wales Cricket Board), curator of All Stars Cricket commented, “We have an amazing opportunity to make cricket the sport we want it to be — a sport that is modern, innovative and inclusive.”
As further example of growth in women’s cricket, in March 2019, UK charity, ‘Chance to Shine’ marked a major milestone by reaching its two millionth girl to play and develop through cricket since 2005. Nine-year-old Keira McDermott became the two millionth girl to pick up a cricket bat and ball through the Chance to Shine programme, supported by ECB and Sport England. Chance to Shine ambassador Heather Knight congratulated the charity on its success saying, “Chance to Shine has done so much for cricket in this country, and specifically for women’s and girls’ cricket. Two million girls introduced to the sport is a massive achievement and it’s exciting to think of what that might mean for the future. We’ve been trying to build on the momentum from our victory in the ICC Women’s World Cup in 2017 and Chance to Shine’s new secondary school girls’ programme can play a big role in getting more girls to pick up a bat or a ball and start playing the game.”
And there are similar stories in other famous cricketing nations. In Australia for example, 30% of cricket players in the country are female and their recent victory in the World Cup on International Women’s Day has done much for the sport. 86,174 fans packed into the famous MCG — the highest number of spectators at any women’s cricket match ever! The chief executive of Cricket Australia Kevin Roberts proclaimed, “bigger than a cricket match and bigger than a sporting event,” due to the impact it would have on gender equality in the sport.
In India where cricket is the most popular sport, they have a national women’s team but more help is needed at grass roots. Former men’s team captain Sunil Gavaskar has urged the country’s cricket governing body to invest in the women’s game and has suggested the establishment of a women’s IPL tournament.
Jo with the England Cricket team
In October 2019, ‘We are Girls in Sport’ attended an event called ‘Championing Women’s Voices’ hosted at Lord’s cricket ground. We had the pleasure of meeting and chatting to the players of the England women’s cricket team, which was an honour in itself with Heather Knight sharing her story with on how she led her team to a stunning victory in that world cup final. Knight was inspired by a visit to Lord’s when she was in primary school. If your daughter was inspired to pick up a cricket bat as a result of this blog, we’d love to know!
The good news is that I have managed to find a cricket club for my daughter, so we haven’t had to wait the twelve months we expected. Hurrah! She’s looking forward to getting back to training this summer.
Jo x
If you’d like to be inspired by another girl’s cricket story, read about 11-year-old, Isabelle Rolfe, who has only recently taken up the sport of cricket but shown such flair that she was selected to play for Kent — what an achievement!
Kent Cricket is a great example is continuing to support female participation. In 2020, they were due to offer support across the county clubs to develop the girls’ sections. This extended to providing a variety of girls only festivals throughout the season.
Download the ECB ‘This Girl Can Play Cricket — Guide to developing a Girls Section for further support.
You might think it’s hard to play cricket at the moment with the limitations on our movement but our friends at Little Big Sports in the UK stock lots of cricket equipment for the garden!
Caroline & Jo, founders of We are Girls in Sport with Katie Malkinson of Little Big Sports