England women to face battle of the sexes?
From the June issue of SPIN, out on May 8, which also features Andy Flower, Atul Sharma, Ian Blackwell, Courtney Walsh, Chris Read and Michael Vaughan’s art and load of other top stuff. Buy it in shops or order it for home delivery from here
After winning the World Cup, the next step for England’s women cricketers could be competing as a team against some of England’s top men’s club teams, SPIN has learned this month.
Former England captain Clare Connor, now ECB head of women’s cricket and credited as one of the key influences behind the team’s Ashes and World Cup success, told SPIN that the idea of raising the team’s standard still further by direct competition with men’s teams was very much on the table.
“When I had my job interview with the ECB 18 months ago one of the things I said I’d like to investigate was putting our best players either into men’s premier league teams on a Saturday, or entering them as a team, so that week in week out they’re in a hard environment. That is still something I haven’t ruled out,” said Connor.
Speaking to SPIN for our 360 feature – see page 22 – Connor was clear that experience of playing alongside boys in schools cricket had helped develop the women’s World Cup winners. “I want to facilitate more girls playing in good cricket schools, where they’re getting a bit of banter and they’ve got to prove themselves even more than if they were playing in an all-female environment,” said Connor.
While 80 per cent of top women cricketers have played against boys or men, she said, she was also keen to investigate whether a more formal arrangement might even lead to women playing in the men’s professional game. “If you kept Sarah Taylor, who is 19 and a really explosive batter, in the men’s game, she could be playing Sussex 2nd XI,” she said.
Connor is well placed to suggest new ways forward for the women’s game, both in England and across the world, to advance: in April, she became the first woman to be elected to the ICC Cricket Committee. She believes that there is, for the first time, a group of around 18 elite women players for whom the Premier League plan would be feasible.
More girls are already joining first-class counties’ Emerging Players Programmes, training alongside the (male) academy players and many of the World Cup winners are already on semi-pro contracts – being paid to coach through the Chance to Shine scheme. The chief obstacle to entering a team in a men’s Premier League would be logistical, although most of the team are based in the south of England.
A women’s team entering a men’s competition would have obvious PR value, beyond the possible improvements to the players’ own games; but many – like India’s Anjum Chopra, who has played in the last four women’s World Cups – believe the women’s game should be kept separate and appreciated on its own merits.
From the June issue of SPIN, out on May 8, which also features Andy Flower, Atul Sharma, Ian Blackwell, Courtney Walsh, Chris Read and Michael Vaughan’s art and load of other top stuff. Buy it in shops or order it for home delivery from here
