The power of success on the field of play has been shown to be of tangible benefit in England this week with news that the England Women’s Cricket team are to be awarded professional contracts following back to back ashes victories that lifted the sport and the nation.
Former captain Clare Connor, who is now head of women’s cricket, told BBC Sport: “Charlotte Edwards and I had to pay for our first England blazer to go on tour to India in 1995 and now 18 years on, what a fantastic day this is for the sport.”
“Players coming trough our pathway now have the opportunity to aim to play professional sport and for any woman that’s an incredible dream.”
“Cricket is showing the way to other sport governing bodies with their investment and by creating a professional team of elite women cricketers they will inspire a new generation young women to play in the future,” said Opposition Sports Minister Clive Efford welcoming the move.
The ECB generates most of its money through TV broadcast rights and commercial deals such as that with Brit insurance which covers the men’s and women’s games.
Only 7% of cricket players in Britain are women but this will be a major boost to the esteem in which elite women sports stars are held and how attractive they can be as role models within schools and at the age when young girls are turning away from team sport.
It is a mark of the major progress that Women’s sport is making in terms of awareness and profile. It does take bold steps in order to move things to their right level.
The Ashes victory of England’s women cricketers could be compared to the Irish Women’s Rugby team achieving the nation’s first ever Grand Slam last year and being on target for an incredible follow up with two wins already in this year’s tournament.
Their next two matches will be against England at Twickenham and against Italy at the Aviva Stadium on March 8th. After each of those matches the team will return to work in schools and offices around the country while the men’s team take to ice baths or professional physiotherapy.
The Women’s team has attracted sponsorship from multinational Aon Insurance, echoing their other sports sponsorship of Manchester United so they are certainly helping to fund the sport.
The men’s game of course attracts greater interest and finance at present but in an era of professional rugby is it too much to imagine that the next generation of women players will be given the same opportunity. It’s happened in England. We live in hope.
