Top-down to bottom-up? The ECB are pledging unprecedented money and facility provision for the women's club game

JAMES COYNE: The rise of women's cricket has been a powerful story at international level; at the grassroots the picture is a little more complicated

The rise of women’s cricket has been a powerful story at international level; at the grassroots the picture is a little more complicated.

It is generally agreed that the base of the women’s club game ought to be stronger, and the ECB, partly through the dividend of the Sky and BBC TV deal, are pledging to build a “strong, sustainable and inclusive club network” as part of a £20m injection over two years, and a potential £50m over five.

In the grilling from the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee, ECB chief executive Tom Harrison spoke of 100 new women’s changing facilities made possible by the new deal.

The ECB say that 216,000 females played cricket in England and Wales in 2019, but much of that appears to be wrapped up in introductory bat-and-ball experiences, All Stars Cricket or ECB Softball Festivals. All are laudable programmes intended to make females a crucial fabric of the game. There is less certainty about how many females progress into recognisable league cricket.

The ECB say there are 855 clubs with women’s and/or girls’ sections, up from 579 in 2015. That would mean roughly one in every eight clubs. But a more helpful figure is the 33,000 females clocked as playing more than twice a month.

Of the almost 1,000 clubs who fed into The Cricketer/Cricket Club Development Network survey this month, 20 per cent said they had at least one women’s open-age team. Many of these are ECB Clubmark clubs, who are on balance likelier to provide women’s cricket.

There are strongholds of women’s cricket, which was clear from the first season of the Kia Summer Smash – a T10 tournament run by The Cricketer – which featured four regional festivals. The standard in the south and south-west looked particularly strong.

^{Clare Connor is hoping that softball initiatives can start to transfer into longer-term female participation in cities like Birmingham, which will host the 2022 Commonwealth Games women’s tournament}

But the ECB admit there are “black pockets” that make it “a postcode lottery” if a girl will live near a women’s club. And if you speak honestly with many stalwarts of the women’s game they will tell you the overall standard of club cricket has got worse as more clubs have popped up and county cricket has been strengthened.

That could be about to change. The eight new centres of excellence – pretty much replacing the county system at senior level – will inevitably lead some players needing club cricket more. It seems likely that nationwide county competitions will cease as part of the restructure, though the Women’s County T20 will go ahead again in 2020.

Connor said: “Our consultation has shown that it’s not a performance competition, and it won’t drive the performances that we need for the international game – it’s more of a participation experience. It’s done a really good job in the absence of competitive club cricket for women.

“The investment into women’s club cricket is possibly our most important area in terms of really driving sustainable club experiences for women and girls. In time, premier leagues and good recreational club cricket needs to fill that gap.”

How they will implement this on the ground will be fascinating. The ECB have raised £8m which will be made available through small grant schemes for clubs to invest in more facilities to cater for female cricketers.

Connor says the ECB “will be looking really strategically where money for club facilities needs to go”. With a total of £55m set to be released to county boards under the forthcoming County Partnership Agreement, there could be a battle royale for money in the club game.

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A “new workforce of club development officers”, overseen by ECB head of female participation Lauren Crozier – hired from BT Sport – and backed by an additional £1m, will help drive women’s club cricket.

Up to now, friction with men’s cricket has generally been avoided, as women’s leagues tend to take place on Sundays, which avoids a clash with Saturday men’s teams over grounds.

Women often have to put up with travelling further to play than men, as there tend to be fewer teams in an immediate area. Striking the right balance between travel and finding opposition of a similar standard can be tricky – and explains why many women’s leagues have stuck with 40-over cricket to ensure players get their money’s worth.

Chevy Green of the Surrey Cricket Foundation says a restructure in the south has helped with that: “Sometimes the quality was so mismatched. You could travel two hours and roll a team very quickly and it is a waste of a Sunday.

“Surrey and neighbouring boards have regular meetings to shape the leagues on offer to suit everyone in their patches, to reduce travel times and get the formats and rules matched up.

“There’s still going to be a lot of travel because there’s not that many teams, but there are more at youth level and travel is reduced massively there, so hopefully as they grow up there will be more women’s teams and it won’t be as much of an issue.”

The sense of instability is backed up by ECB findings which show that 10–15 per cent of female club sections fall by the wayside each year. Halting that churn should be the first priority.

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