Cricket Witness No 4 - Women at the WIcket

135 support for the game, but often in distinctly economic terms. In stressing the key mental abilities the game taught, including good judgement, a ‘strong personality’, leadership, ‘tact and firmness’, determination, selflessness and cooperation, the WCA was able to shift away from a narrative that had defined the utility of sport solely in terms of a woman’s biology and fertility. Cricketers demanded an appreciation of the game based on their moral, mental and athletic prowess. 32 Women’s mass induction to a sport viewed by contemporaries as both a manifestation of English virtue and a vital component of Britain’s civilising imperial programme mirrored women’s mass introduction into the democratic life of the nation. 33 As Britain went to war once more, their sense of civic duty was called upon yet again. ‘The idea a girl cannot play cricket has proved to be rubbish’