Securing a bright future for Women's Cricket

ICC President David Morgan outlines his vision for women’s cricket and examines some of the challenges facing the game.
I am greatly excited by the prospect of 2009 being the biggest year in the history of women’s cricket with the Women’s World Cup taking place under the ICC banner for the first time in Australia in March and the joint men’s and women’s ICC World Twenty20 in England in June.

Although the first global Women’s World Cup event was held in 1973, two years before the first ever men’s tournament, I know that everybody in the women’s game is greatly excited by the next 12 months.

With the broadcast of seven live matches at this tournament to more than 100 countries worldwide, I am hopeful that the likes of Lisa Sthalekar, Charlotte Edwards and Jhulan Goswami can inspire a new generation of supporters.

While there has been great progress made since the ICC merged with the International Women’s Cricket Council in 2005, I am also very conscious that we face a number of challenges to develop the game.

At the moment there is a huge gulf between the top eight sides competing in the ICC Women’s World Cup and those below this level. While raising standards across the board, the ICC and its Members need to be committed to broadening the international participation base.

This is also an area of great opportunity for Member countries to demonstrate success, as there is the potential for teams to become extremely competitive in women’s cricket at a faster rate than in the more established men’s game. I think we could see some of the emerging cricketing nations, such as China, take rapid steps forward in the coming years in the women’s game.

The 2010 Asian Games in China will feature a joint men’s and women’s tournament. This will be an excellent opportunity to monitor the progress of Asia’s top female teams, although it will be tough for the emerging sides to compete with the likes of India and Sri Lanka.

We also need to find ways of encouraging more women into leadership positions both at the International Cricket Council and throughout our Members, to ensure better representation at a senior level. I am certain that there are many talented individuals who can serve the game very well – we just need to find a way of encouraging them into the game in a professional capacity to add their expertise to the sport.

We need to use the next 12 months to build some good momentum for women’s cricket. In an age when there are so many demands on people’s time, not just from other sports, such as football and basketball, but a range of entertainment, leisure and work commitments, it is a challenge for cricket stand out as a pursuit of choice for girls across the world.

We need to make cricket an attractive sport for girls to try when they are young and continue through their teenage years. We don’t just want more young people playing, we want to make sure they stay in the sport and boost the number of females playing senior cricket.

Through the innovative work of the ICC Women’s Committee, who were the driving force behind the introduction of the joint men’s and women’s tournament at the ICC World Twenty20 2009, we need to continue to be prepared to think creatively and take risks to make women’s cricket an attractive proposition for players, spectators, broadcasters and sponsors.

I am certain that Twenty20 cricket provides a great platform for the women to showcase their increased levels of skill and I am hopeful that we will see individual Member countries continue the trend of double-headers featuring the top female teams and male teams at high profile venues around the world. These matches are crucial opportunities for us to expose women’s cricket to new audiences both in the stadiums and on television.

I would also like to see more time invested in encouraging women to attend international matches. In my time with the England and Wales Cricket Board, I believe through a range of policies we began to attract more women into stadia, and the Indian Premier League boosted the interest of women in India in the sport, but we need to consider whether ticketing policies, the marketing of the sport, the facilities at stadia and the match presentation can be improved to boost the ratio of female spectators and television viewers.
Cricket Australia, through its ‘Females in Cricket Strategy’ has also conducted market research into how more women can be attracted into all aspects of the game. If we can achieve this at a global level, then not only will our sport be stronger, but it could also bear commercial dividends too.

If women can be gripped by the excitement of attending live cricket, even if they decide they do not want to play themselves, then hopefully we can encourage them to contribute to other areas of the game such as administration, coaching and umpiring. Volunteers are the lifeblood of the game and I hope that some of the 1000 medals that will be awarded to outstanding volunteers during the ICC’s centenary year will recognise the contribution of women to the grass-roots of the game.

As you can see, there are many challenges facing the sport so, for now, I would simply encourage everybody to take some time in March to watch women’s cricket at the ICC Women’s World Cup, possibly for the first time, and play their part in developing the women’s game.