Tuesday 28 July 2015 13:17, UK
England hosting the 2017 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup is a chance to create an "ongoing legacy for girls and women in this country" according to the ECB’s head of women’s cricket.
England will host the tournament for the first time in 24 years, with Lord’s Cricket Ground confirmed as the venue for the final.
And ECB women’s cricket chief Clare Connor says the chance to represent England at a home World Cup is an added incentive for top players in this country.
It is huge for us as an organisation and huge for women’s cricket and women’s sport.
She told Sky Sports: "It’s a massive opportunity to create an ongoing legacy for girls and women in this country - not just to play but to be fans and volunteers and maybe to go on and work in the game
"We’re really lucky we have got that opportunity. It is huge for us as an organisation and huge for women’s cricket and women’s sport. We’ve already had some very healthy discussions about what we want to achieve and what success (as a host nation) could look like.
"Derek Brewer, the chief executive at the MCC, has already said that his aspiration is to make sure Lord’s is full for the final and obviously England would want to be part of that final.
"We’ve got plenty of time create something truly special and it’s really exciting to know that the opportunity to play on home turf is also driving the players."
Connor hopes England can replicate the success of the recent Women’s football World Cup and insists there is huge momentum around women’s sport in this country right now.
She said: "We’ve seen incredible scenes recently from the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada.
"Incredible attendances, with over a million tickets sold across the 50 games, and over a billion viewers across the world on television screens so I think there is a lot to learn from that.
"The women’s sport movement is quite a collective thing (in this country). What I think is really healthy is that we share ideas and we share thinking, so we’re all working together to take women’s sport foreard and there’s great government support for that."
