Celebrating International Women's Day

Today, Sussex Cricket and the Sussex Cricket Foundation have been celebrating International Women's Day by shining a light on the incredible women that work at Sussex Cricket.

Making cricket as inclusive as possible, both through participation and employment opportunities, is extremely important to Sussex Cricket. A few of our female employees took the time to answer questions about their experiences of working at Sussex Cricket and what it means to be part of the club.

Kay Gunn, People Director at Sussex Cricket said "It's great to see the growth of women's and girls' cricket across Sussex. With so much success across a variety of women's sports in recent years, we're clearly seeing the knock-on effect on the increasing demand to watch and participate in a variety of sports, including cricket. The growth of women's and girls' cricket in Sussex is credit to the hard work of the Sussex Cricket Foundation, spearheaded by Charlotte Burton. 

I do think there's still much work to be done in raising the profile of women's sport further, particularly when it comes to harnessing the power of role models, not only helping to increase participation, but also to help move towards a greater diversity in senior sports administration roles generally, and in cricket specifically." 

Women's and girls' cricket is thriving in Sussex and continues to grow at rapid pace. 64 clubs across the County currently offer women's and/or girls' cricket, which is an impressive growth of 22 clubs during the last year. It's really encouraging to see an increased number of women wanting to become coaches and officials. 

The demand to access cricket is high and we have several opportunities for women and girls of all ages and abilities to play the game across Sussex: in schools; at the affiliated clubs or in more informal settings. During 2022, we have an action-packed schedule, where we will continue to run the highly successful women's softball festivals, club league competitions, including the Sussex Slam, and other participation opportunities, through All Stars & Dynamos. All this, in addition to our existing commitments with the England and Wales Cricket Board, Chance to Shine and the Aldridge Foundation, where targeted programmes are delivered specifically to help grow the game.

Charlotte Burton, Women and Girls' Development Officer added – “It is going to be another exciting summer for Women and Girls cricket across Sussex, with more opportunities at all ages & abilities to play either soft ball or hard ball cricket in a fun, social or competitive environment. We are also working to get more Women into volunteering roles at clubs whether that’s coaching, officiating or a role on a club committee. The Women who work at Sussex show how easy it can be to work in a sporting environment and that women can work or volunteer in many different roles. It has been great to hear from some of the Women who have shared what they do at Sussex Cricket for International Women’s Day and for us to celebrate and recognise the great work they do every day for the club.”

To learn more about our offerings for women's and girls' cricket, please visit our website https://sussexcricket.co.uk/women-and-girls or contact Charlotte Burton at charlotte.burton@sussexcricket.co.uk

To view more of the incredible work women do at Sussex Cricket, click here.