Cricket Witness No 4 - Women at the WIcket

148 the first in which all eight nations competing had centrally-contracted professionals. Women at the top end of cricket benefitted from lucrative prize money: the England squad shared almost £500,000 for winning in 2017, a tenfold increase from the 2013 World Cup, and received additional incentives through sponsorship and winning group games. This was a far cry from the 1930s, when playing for anything other than a love of the game was forbidden by the WCA. Pollard thought professionalism and competitive leagues served to ‘glorify the few’ and detracted from the heart of cricket found in local clubs and on village greens. 26 Pollard would have doubtless berated the acrobats, flame-throwers and cheerleaders found at women’s Twenty20 matches. Autonomy was the foundation stone for the sport for much of the 20th century, guaranteeing its survival against the hostility, ridicule, and often ludicrous claims thrown at it. This firm footing was lost in 1998, when the WCA merged with the England and Wales Cricket Board. That same year the MCC voted to admit women for the first time, and male coaches and umpires were appointed to women’s games. The two cricketing worlds were converging. Despite valid fears commercialised, male-influenced cricket would destroy the game from the inside, women’s sport was transformed in the 20 years following Charlotte Edwards’ debut for England in 1996, when she had to pay for her own travel and kit. Isolation was traded for opportunities to expand and financial stability. Meanwhile, competitive mixed cricket gathered pace. As of 2014, talented players could look to cricket as a genuine career option, but the sport also witnessed dramatic growth at grassroots level. Between 2005 and 2016 over one million girls in state schools played cricket thanks to the charity Chance to Shine, and female cricketers spearheaded these efforts. From a lull of just 93 clubs in 2005, by 2014 cricket was one of the fastest growing sports for women in Britain, with just under 600 clubs in England that catered for over 59,000 women and girls. 27 The combination of heightened publicity, growing awareness, better funding and greater public interest, not to mention better standards of play, is revolutionising the game in the 21st century. Barring the (hopefully) unlikely onset of a Third World War, women’s cricket will continue to surpass the highs of the interwar years for decades to come, and achieve what these women were unable to. These developments simply would not have been possible without the courageous efforts of the pioneer generation, who were strong enough to ignore their detractors, silence their critics and take solace in the game they loved. Conclusion - War Again, and its Aftermath