Female Cricket Volunteers Needed
Thursday 8th February 2024
This is a rallying cry to encourage more females to get involved in the game of cricket in Kent.
Everyone has seen that women’s & girls’ cricket has been through, and continues to be in, a period of exponential growth. In 2015, when rounders was removed from the GCSE PE National Curriculum, it introduced cricket to thousands of girls that might have only played it if someone in their family already had an interest in it. With the help of the Community Team at Kent Cricket, there are also cricket clubs setting up women’s & girls’ junior sections all over the county. Driving the growth of cricket in state schools is also a huge focus for the ECB, and initiatives like ‘Chance to Shine’ and ‘Proof of Concept’ are helping boost the exposure of the game.
It’s now becoming the norm, from the age of 5, for girls to join a cricket club and join an ‘All Stars’ or ‘Dynamos’ cricket programme, which is fantastic to see. There is much more visibility and opportunity for girls to watch international and professional women’s cricket and being a professional female cricketer and earning a living is a realistic dream. There is a clear pathway from club & school cricket to professional women’s cricket, but more importantly there are opportunities to play the game at a variety of levels, whether that’s hard or soft ball cricket.
A huge issue we have in cricket that we need further help with, is the lack of female volunteers, to cope with this growth. We have an existing group of female volunteers in the club network doing some great work, of which you may be one, but we now need another wave of female volunteers putting themselves forward. Cricket clubs need coaches, umpires, scorers, fixture secretaries, match managers, first aiders, safeguarding officers, membership secretaries etc. There is a role to match anyone’s available time, confidence levels and skill set. The women’s game, and cricket clubs in general, need help, so if this has peaked your interest, please either enquire directly to someone at your club, or look at the following links available on the Kent Community Cricket website:
COACHING & FIRST AID COURSES
> Female Coaching Course Bursaries Available
For more information about ways you can get involved at Women’s and Girls’ clubs throughout Kent please contact Helen Fagg, Senior Manager, Female & Disability Cricket.
To find out more about the Girls’ Area Programme & Girls’ Talent Pathway at Kent Cricket, contact Dave Smith, Women’s & Girls’ Pathway Manager.