Plan to transform women's and girls' cricket launched

Photo: Don Miles

Following two years of consultation with all 38 Counties and Cricket Wales, and detailed analysis of thousands of survey responses from the recreational and elite game, the ECB has today launched its action plan to transform women’s and girls’ cricket with the fundamental goal of making cricket a gender-balanced sport.

Transforming women’s and girls’ cricket is one of six priorities within ECB’s ‘Inspiring Generations’ strategy for 2020-2024. An unprecedented £20m of funding will be invested over the next two years, with an ambition of investing £50m over the five years, to enable organisations across the cricket network to recruit more dedicated resources, improve the player experience, and increase the opportunities to build careers in the sport.

Another ground-breaking commitment is the funding of 40 full-time professional, domestic contracts. These contracts will be in addition to the existing England Women Centrally Contracted players.

The comprehensive ten-point action plan aims to transform all elements of women’s and girls’ cricket in England and Wales to increase engagement, grow representation and improve opportunities across the game. The plan focuses on five key objectives:
 

• Participation: To increase the number of women and girls playing cricket recreationally
• Pathway: To develop aspiring female cricketers (U11-17) as players and people
• Performance: To drive the performance of England women’s cricket through a new semi-professional, eight region structure
• Profile: To elevate the profile of women’s cricket through The Hundred, the England Women’s team and the elite game
• People: To increase the representation of women across the cricket workforce

To test some of the recommendations for the recreational game, ECB has run pilot programmes with over 600 cricket clubs to better understand the essential criteria in creating the most sustainable women’s and girls’ clubs.

Discussing the new plan, Sussex Cricket chief executive, Rob Andrew said: “After two years of thought and discussion between the counties and the ECB, it is extremely exciting to see cricket’s ambitious plans for the women’s and girls’ game presented today.

“A clear strategy and previously unmatched levels of funding give us the opportunity to transform women’s and girls’ cricket at all levels.

“We’re especially excited at Sussex as this action plan allows us to build on the significant progress we’ve already made in growing women’s and girl’s cricket in the county.

“In the last twelve months alone, we’ve seen the number of Sussex clubs with a women’s and girl’s section increase by 50%, we’re reaching more and more girls through our schools and community programmes – over 2,500 during the last academic year, a record number of girls have attended county squad assessment, we’ve had five players represent England and we’ve hosted our third Kia Super League finals day and yet another England international.

“The Transforming Women’s & Girls’ Cricket action plan gives us a fantastic opportunity to go much, much further.”

ECB managing director, women’s cricket, Clare Connor said: “Cricket has been an integral part of my life, as a player and in my role of Managing Director of Women’s Cricket. I have never been more excited by the opportunity in front of us right now.

“Recent initiatives have given women and girls more opportunities to play, such as All Stars Cricket for 5-8-year-olds, the South Asian female activators programme, and the Kia Super League for our most talented domestic cricketers. But to truly transform women’s and girls’ cricket, we must now move from targeted standalone programmes to addressing the whole pathway as one.

“We have an amazing opportunity to make cricket the sport we want it to be - a sport that is modern, innovative and inclusive. I have been so heartened by the level of enthusiasm, commitment and support for this plan from everyone involved in cricket.”

England Women’s Captain, Heather Knight added: “This action plan is a really exciting next step in the continued growth of women’s cricket. We need more young girls to be inspired to play and those young girls need to be able to see a clear pathway above them that encourages them to continue pursuing the game.

“As England players we’re fortunate enough to meet lots of young girls who love the game and it means so much to us to see how much they love cricket. Much of this plan is about normalising the game for women and girls and I’m excited to see how this increased opportunity takes the game forward.”

You can download the full action plan below.