Celebrating International Women's Day: Charlotte Burton's story

On International Women's Day, cricket is celebrating the many amazing women behind the scenes who are playing their part in making cricket a game for everyone. As part of this, Sussex Cricket's women and girls development officer and former Sussex Women's, Charlotte Burton tells her story...

I started working as Women’s and Girls’ Development Officer here 15 years ago. At that time there were two clubs in Sussex with women’s and girls’ sections. Now there are 40.

That number is growing all the time. We’ve just had the entries through for all our club leagues and there are more clubs entering than ever. The number is going to go up even more, and that’s fantastic.

I don’t have a target in mind for the future. I don’t think about how many clubs will have women’s and girls’ sections in 15 years’ time. I just want to see more women and girls playing cricket. Part of my job is to make sure it’s sustainable and that the right structures are in place for them.

When I was playing, people really didn’t know that women played cricket. I played in the days when women wore long socks and a skirt – that’s how long ago it was!

I had a dad who loved football and cricket, and three older brothers. I moved from playing with them in the garden to playing at Shoreham CC and there wasn’t a girls’ team, so I played with the boys and ended up captaining them.

I was a bowler. I didn’t get any sledging myself but my dad would tell me some of the parents would tell their boys: “You can’t get out to a girl!”

Anyway, I was used to a bit of banter from playing football so it didn’t faze me at all.

There are now three women’s club leagues in Sussex, as well as three girls’ club leagues and festivals for three girls’ age groups – but when I started playing for Brighton and Hove there was no league in the county. For many years, we’d have to go to Middlesex, Surrey and as far as Bath for matches. 

In the end I played for Sussex Women for 17 years and was part of five Championship and one T20 winning side. Then I became women’s head coach for Sussex Cricket and coached the side that won the County Championship in 2013 and the NatWest T20 in 2015.

When I was 14 the Sussex women’s committee wanted a player representative to join it, so I did. Two years later I did my coaching qualification and started to coach some of the county junior squads and some clubs’ boys’ teams.

At 21 I was asked to organise everything to do with the women’s and girls’ county squads – fixtures, training sessions, everything. I was still playing, and was working in a bakery and as a buyer for a food company. Then the job came up working for the county.

There has been enormous growth since then, but it’s not just down to me. There’s a lot of volunteers involved and without their hard work it just wouldn’t happen. We’re also very lucky to be sponsored by the Aldridge Foundation, which funds us to run a girls-only cricket project under which we run hubs in the Brighton area and work with schools there too.

Schools and clubs have helped too by giving girls the opportunity to play the game and play matches.

On International Women’s Day I’m running a two-hour coaching session with the county girls, and in the afternoon it’s the finals of the women’s clubs’ indoor league. It feels like a very appropriate way of spending the day.