Celebrating over 250 years of Women’s Cricket
The first recorded Women’s cricket match was in 1745, at the Gosden Common, Surrey. It was said to be a match between ‘nine married ladies’ and ‘nine single ladies’. The sport has changed a lot since then and we have seen milestones achieved by women. Today we do not differentiate teams through marital status.
In July 2021, a remarkable milestone occurred when a tournament for the first time involved both women and men. The Hundred offers equal importance to both genders’ sides.
World Cup
With the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup scheduled for March and April this year, England fans are hoping to claim the trophy again after its victory in 2017.
At Lords in July 2017, we saw England win by 9 runs against India. The England Captain, Heather Knight expressed: ‘I can’t stop smiling. The girls have been outstanding. We’ve made it hard for ourselves, but we’ve won some tight games.’
Don’t forget to support England in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup by streaming on Sky Sports.
Hall of Fame
There are many terrific records broken within women’s cricket. These consist of Amelia Kerr having the highest individual score (One Day International) of 232, in June 2018. Kerr also happens to be the youngest (17) double century scorer in both men’s and women’s cricket. Also, Jhulan Ghoswami broke the record of having the most career wickets of 245, with Cathryn Fitzpatrick coming second with 180 wickets. Just to name a few.
Watch out for Deano!
Charlie Dean is an instance of excellence, a 21-year-old who made her debut for the England women’s cricket team in September 2021 and since then she has been thriving. Not to mention that she is currently a student at University of Southampton and is part of the Southampton Ladies Cricket Club!
When she’s not on the Switch dancefloor, you can find her out on the pitch. Originally playing for the Southern Vipers, she became the joint-leading wicket-taker in her national debut. In the 5 match ODI series against New Zealand she took 10 wickets. In the 2nd ODI, Dean lead England to victory by taking 4/36 (meaning she got four people out!).
So how can we help?
We have made progress in bringing awareness, but we can still do better.
We have seen an increase in 24% of men following women’s sports than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic, as stated in a Sky Sports article. This exhibits the power the media has and that we all should continue encouraging women’s cricket. Despite this, we still have a long way to go, and we are all responsible for promoting cricket.
Things such as sharing on social media can help, but the most important thing we can do is implement sports in girls from a young age, this can be in school or outside of the classroom.
You can get involved too, here are some clubs you can get involved in whether you’re in school or an adult.
All stars : For Children aged 5-8 years old
County Clubs : For all ages
Volunteering: Make a difference
Girls Cricket Club : Find a club near you
