Helen Fagg: “We have a proud history of women’s cricket”

On International Women’s Day, we sat down with the Club’s Women’s & Girls’ Programme Manager, Helen Fagg, to talk about the strength of women’s cricket in Kent and her experiences of working in cricket.

I joined Kent Cricket in 2015 in a different role to the one I am in today, and in Summer 2016 I switched to become a Community Cricket Officer (Women’s & Girls’), with the additional responsibility of managing the Girls’ County Pathway.

During my time to-date in post, I have seen some big changes across that period! The professionalisation of the Regional Centres, with more female players having cricket as a viable career option; the introduction of All Stars and Dynamos (National Programmes) enticing many more young female players to try the sport for the first time and the emergence and growth of Women’s Softball Cricket, an accessible, social and fun version of the game have also strengthened the women’s game at a top and grassroots level.

As a county, we have a proud history of women’s cricket in general, with a very broad base of cricket clubs at the recreational level.

In recent years, we’re starting to see the formalisation of more female only programmes and sections, but female players in Kent have been playing mixed cricket with men and boys for years, both recreationally, and, most importantly, at a performance level.

Many of the International women’s cricketers that Kent has produced have played their way through the old District (now Area) system with boys, and then made it onto the main Kent Cricket Academy, which has no doubt hugely assisted their development.

Kent Cricket as an organisation has always invested heavily into both boy’s and girl’s county talent pathways to support players with most potential.

This focus on the support of female performance players has no doubt influenced the success of the Kent Women.

And now after the 2021 season, we have top level women’s competitions in regional centre and The Hundred. It’s hard to quantify the positive impact it has had on the motivation of these young female players, knowing that they can play the sport they love for a living and have the opportunity one day, for example, to walk out at Lord’s to a packed crowd, with the match shown live on terrestrial TV. I can see this having a profound positive impact on the number of females choosing the game of cricket in the future.

But back at Kent, our age group squads are about halfway through their Winter training programmes, which have thankfully been uninterrupted this year!

We’re excited to see how the players transition into the outdoor environment in April, and how they fair as they start their various county competitions in the Summer.

We are also excited to see how the players involved in the GDP (Girls’ Development Programme) this year have developed.

The GDP is headed up by Kent Women’s Head Coach, Dave Hathrill, and has seen a whole new crop of young talent being able to access more individual, specialist, cricket and strength & conditioning training. It will be great for them to put all their training into practice this Summer in a Kent shirt!

---

The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence will once again host a full England Women’s One-Day International (WODI) match in 2022, with a Royal London WODI against India under the lights in Canterbury on Wednesday, 21 September.

Entry to England vs. India is FREE for all valid 2022 Kent Members & Ticket Bundle holders, and this fixture will count as one day of any Six Pack or Six Pack Plus Ticket Bundle.

Become a Kent Member for 2022 now

Entry to all Kent Women home matches will be FREE for 2022 Members and Ticket Bundle Holders.