Buzzin Cricket

Later this month, England’s women’s cricket team will take to the field in Australia to play a series of warm-up games as they prepare for the ICC World Cup. The matches, and the tournament that follows, will attract a fraction of the amount of coverage that the men’s team gets, and, as with women’s games in this country, will probably not be played in front of a substantial crowd.

However, the ECB (England Cricket Board) are hoping to rectify this in the summer when England plays host to the World Twenty20 competition. The women’s and men’s tournament will be run simultaneously, and for the semi-finals and final, the women’s games will act as curtain raisers to the men and will be played on the same ground.

It is a unique and ambitious step to try and encourage more fans to support the women’s game, and despite being greeted with initial enthusiasm, is certainly not without it’s risks. The Oval will host one of the semi-finals and Surrey’s Cricket Development Manager Sharon Eyers says that the possibility of the plan backfiring is one which has been discussed.

“The main problem is that it is one ticket for all day entry,” she explains. “So there is a slight concern that the ground will be empty in the morning for the women’s game as people will just turn up later.”

She continues: “The question was asked why could we not have two separate tickets for the day, the answer was we could not empty the ground safely, so we believe that was not a viable answer.”

On the whole though, Eyers believes that it is a positive and exciting move for women’s cricket: “We want to promote the women’s game in a good light and this is the way to go about it. The tournament will be televised and the crowds will see how professional the whole set up is.”

England’s women’s squad go into their succession of tournaments in 2009 in good form, having defeated Australia in the Ashes and won series against New Zealand, West Indies and South Africa in 2008. Nicky Shaw, one of the 15-strong squad that will travel to Australia for the World Cup, says that once people have watched a women’s match, the standard of the cricket usually keeps them interested.

“After people come to watch us they do have a geniune interest and are very surprised how hard we hit the ball and how enjoyable our games can be. It’s just a case of getting people to watch us and showing them we can be as interesting to watch as the men’s team.”

The Surrey fast bowler says that this is why the ECB’s Twenty20 plans can make a big difference to the size of the following that the women’s game can attract. “I think the game needs more publicity and the ECB seem to be trying,” she says. “Hopefully this year we will get a lot more support, especially if we win the World Cup, the Twenty20 and The 2009 Ashes later on in the year.”

A successful campaign in Australia may not generate too many column inches, but may just be enough to ignite some people’s interest in the women’s game going into the Twenty20 tournament. According to Shaw, a boost in attendances this summer could benefit not just England, but women’s teams across the world.

“The level of interest is generally the same everywhere, the only place that it is different is India, where they love any type of cricket. I don’t know how big the fanbase in England could be, but hopefully big enough for us to create good revenue and in the future enable us to become professional players.”