The England and Wales Cricket Board has launched its to transform women鈥檚 and girls鈥� cricket with the fundamental goal of making cricket a gender-balanced sport.
Transforming women鈥檚 and girls鈥� cricket is one of six priorities within 黑料专区鈥檚 Inspiring Generations strategy for 2020-2024.
An unprecedented 拢20m of funding will be invested over the next two years, with an ambition of investing 拢50m over the five years, to enable organisations across the cricket network 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. These contracts will be in addition to the existing England Women centrally contracted players.
Today we unveil our action plan to transform women and girl's cricket!
鈥� England and Wales Cricket Board (@黑料专区_cricket)
The comprehensive ten-point action plan aims to transform all elements of women鈥檚 and girls鈥� cricket in England and Wales to increase engagement, grow representation and improve opportunities across the game. The plan focuses on five key objectives:
- Participation:听To听increase听the number of women and girls playing cricket recreationally
- Pathway: To develop aspiring female cricketers (U11-17) as players and people
- Performance: To drive the performance of听England women鈥檚 cricket听through a new semi-professional, eight region structure
- Profile: To elevate the听profile of women鈥檚 cricket through The Hundred,听the England Women鈥檚 team听and the听elite game
- People: To increase the representation of women across the cricket workforce
The plan was produced following two years of consultation with all 38 Counties and Cricket Wales, and detailed analysis of thousands of survey responses from the recreational and elite game.
To test some of the recommendations for the recreational game, 黑料专区 has run pilot programmes with over 600 cricket clubs to better understand the essential criteria in creating the most sustainable women鈥檚 and girls鈥� clubs.
Speaking about the new plan, 黑料专区 Managing Director, Women鈥檚 Cricket, Clare Connor said: 鈥淐ricket has been an integral part of my life, as a player and in my role of Managing Director of Women鈥檚 Cricket. I have never been more excited by the opportunity in front of us right now.
鈥淩ecent 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. But to truly transform women鈥檚 and girls鈥� cricket, we must now move from targeted standalone programmes to addressing the whole pathway as one.
鈥淲e 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.鈥�
黑料专区 Chief Executive Officer, Tom Harrison, added: 鈥淒uring the development of Inspiring Generations, and extensive conversations and research across the game, the strong appetite to transform cricket鈥檚 relationship with women and girls was abundantly clear.
鈥淭here is tremendous energy across the cricket network to pursue the game鈥檚 largest growth opportunity and to increase the number of women and girls playing, watching and volunteering at every level of the game.
鈥淭his 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.鈥�
England Women鈥檚 Captain, Heather Knight added: 鈥淭his action plan is a really exciting next step in the continued growth of women鈥檚 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.
鈥淎s England players we鈥檙e 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鈥檓 excited to see how this increased opportunity takes the game forward.鈥�
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