Cricket Witness No 4 - Women at the WIcket

72 ‘Too much emphasis on personal comfort’ to hire grounds from schools, clubs, workplaces and counties, nearly all affiliated bodies did not own their own facilities and were dependent on male approval to enable their cricket. Professional cricketers such as Harry Makepeace and Learie Constantine regularly coached female players, and help from employers was essential for workplace teams. 38 By cultivating an image of women’s cricket that complemented common middle-class expectations of women as elegant, humble and reverential, the WCA skilfully aimed to secure the future of the sport. Control over women’s bodies was a microcosm for debates concerning the nation. Anxieties over Britain’s racial health, declining role as the world’s dominant power and an increasing rejection of Victorian moral standards were transferred to the theatre of women’s physiology. For some, strenuous sport was considered debilitating, unsexing or possibly even sterilising, but for others it promised to raise the standards of national health and ensure a generation of strong, youthful and productive citizens. As the interwar years progressed the latter argument became dominant, but women’s participation in the national game remained fraught with controversy. Yet through a skilful and tactful approach to public relations, cricketers attempted to construct a panacea to charges levelled by their opponents and achieve the support they needed to continue and thrive. Unsurprisingly the regulation and enforcement of the WCA’s dictums on dress, decorum and competitive play was near impossible. Given the sizeable degree of moralising in Women’s Cricket , they were probably regularly broken. But it was the public image of a reputable, bourgeois femininity that was crucial to the WCA’s survival and prosperity, and not necessarily the reality.