Clare Connor: "We have an amazing opportunity to make cricket the sport we want it to be - a sport that is modern, innovative and inclusive"
Saturday 12 October 2019 12:31, UK
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has 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 outlined within the ECB's 'Inspiring Generations' strategy for 2020-2024, with an unprecedented £20m of funding set to be invested over the next two years to fulfil this ambition.
The ECB is also aiming to invest £50m over a five-year period, to enable cricketing organisations 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, which will be in addition to the existing centrally-contracted women's players.
The comprehensive 10-point action plan aims to increase engagement, grow representation and improve opportunities across the game within England and Wales, focusing on five key objectives:
The plan was compiled following two years of consultation with all 38 counties and Cricket Wales, featuring detailed analysis of thousands of survey responses from the recreational and elite game.
The ECB also ran a pilot programme with over 600 cricket clubs to understand the essential criteria required to create sustainable women's and girls' clubs.
Former England captain Clare Connor - the ECB's managing director of women's cricket, 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.
"I have been so heartened by the level of enthusiasm, commitment and support for this plan from everyone involved in cricket."
"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.
"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."
ECB chief executive officer Tom Harrison has praised the "tremendous energy" within the game and insists the plan represents a significant step in the bid to make cricket "a gender-balanced sport".
"During the development of Inspiring Generations and extensive conversations and research across the game, the strong appetite to transform cricket's relationship with women and girls was abundantly clear," said Harrison.
"There is tremendous energy across the cricket network to pursue the game's largest growth opportunity and to increase the number of women and girls playing, watching and volunteering at every level of the game.
"This plan, formed in collaboration with the whole cricket network, and supported by our commercial and media partners, represents a crucial step in achieving our ambition of making cricket a gender-balanced sport."
This announcement comes in the midst of a huge domestic shake-up within the women's game, with The Hundred set to replace Kia Super League as the premier domestic women's competition in England in 2020.
England Women's captain Heather Knight said: "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."
'The Hundred Draft - Live' will be live on Sky Sports Cricket, Main Event & Sky One from 1900-2130 on Sunday October 20. It will also be available via Sky Sports' Facebook and YouTube channels, as well as live on the Sky Sports app and streamed on skysports.com.
