Women’s cricket is soaring in popularity, but even as the sport continues to grow across the world, MCC recognises that work still needs to be done with regards to gender equality within our sport.
MCC’s EDI strategy has the promotion and support of women's and girls' involvement in cricket as a key priority -- not just in a playing capacity, but also in terms of administration and the gender diversification of MCC's workforce and membership.
Cricket
Opening the pathway in both professional and grassroots women's cricket has been an important target area for MCC. We believe that by combining an increase in the amount of women's cricket played at Lord's with efforts to increase girls' participation in youth cricket, the Club has a big part to play in the future involvement of women and girls within our sport.
If you are interested in attending a England Women's International match at Lord's, please see below for more details.
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Tickets
Through MCC's own Community Development Department and the work of the MCC Foundation (the charitable arm of MCC), we are delivering a number of girls' grassroots cricket initiatives on a local, national and international level.
Making women’s cricket more visible
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Strategic focus on growing spectator interest in the women's game.
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Five additional women's matches played at Lord's in 2022 and increased further in 2023.
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Proud to be the only ground to be allocated a women's international match every year up to and including 2031.
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Record attendance for a home bilateral England Women's fixture at the England v India Women's ODI in 2022.
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18% of attendees for The Hundred in 2022 were female, with plans to build on this figure in years coming.
Increasing grassroots participation
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In partnership with Middlesex Cricket we are delivering a 50:50 gender split for All Stars and Dynamos Centre bursaries.
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Our after-school community cricket programme has 56% male/44% female participants
MCC Foundation – in the UK
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74 MCC Foundation Hubs were delivered across the country, supporting 2,807 participants, with 14 new girls’ Hubs.
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Around 3,200 young people engaged the Hub programme – 32% of these are girls – this percentage his risen from just 16% in 2019. The target is to eventually reach 50%.
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Hosted the first ever U18 Girls' match on the Main Ground at Lord's in 2021.
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England Womens' Heather Knight, Maia Bouchier and Sophia Dunkley are all MCCF Ambassadors. So too is Brazil Women's Captain, Roberta Avery.
READ MCCF'S 2022 REVIEW
MCC Foundation – overseas
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Coached over 6,000 young people through our programmes across four regions of Nepal – 60% of these are girls.
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45 female beneficiaries have been selected to play for their districts in Nepal.
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Helping to train young female Syrian refugees in Lebanon to become ICC-accredited cricket coaches.
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In Sri Lanka, recently helped three girls who receive MCCF scholarships to gain selection into the Sri Lanka U19 World Cup squad.
Membership and Committees
MCC operated as a men-only club for the first 211 years of its existence, until 1998, when the Club's membership voted to welcome women to join them as Members. By encouraging women to become Members and to participate on our Committees, we are creating a fair and equitable environment that enables MCC to benefit from a greater variety of perspectives and contributions.
Equality in Committees
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Re-structuring of the MCC Committee, has led to the achievement of 25% female representation, despite a reduction in the overall size of the group.
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Our World Cricket committee includes an even greater proportion of female representation, with four women on the group, including England captain Heather Knight and former MCC President Clare Connor (herself also a former England captain).
Staff
Gender diversity in our workforce is an essential ingredient to the success of the Club. Equal representation of female staff allows MCC to attract the best candidates and ensures that every department benefits from a wide range of perspectives coming from different life experiences, fuelling innovation, improvement and excellence.
Maintaining a gender-diverse workforce
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Appointed recruitment agencies who champion diversity, with the aim of seeing a year-on-year increase of gender diversification of senior staff.
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Eliminating the gender pay gap remains an important target, and MCC has committed to report annually on this matter.
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Offered female coaching scholarships to increase gender diversification of coaching workforce.
Heritage and Collections
Lord's is home to one of the most significant historical collections in sport, ensuring MCC has a unique opportunity to promote knowledge and awareness of the history of women's cricket.
Our Heritage & Collections department is committed to the fair representation of women's cricket around the Ground as well as within the Museum, to recognise the contribution and achievements of women and girls.
Increasing education
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Our ground-breaking Evolution of Women's Cricket exhibition was supported by the delivery of a Long Room symposium dedicated to the themes covered by the displays.
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This exhibition was enhanced by the acquisition of the Women's Cricket Association archive.
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We are committed to adding further material relating to women's cricket to the MCC archive to provide an accessible resource for historical research.
Building a legacy
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The Heyhoe Flint Gate was installed on the same St. John's Wood Road frontage as the Grace Gate, presenting a permanent memorial to the legacy of Rachael Heyhoe Flint as one of the great cricketing pioneers.
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The Harris Garden will see a new plaque unveiled at the 2023 Women's Ashes to mark the spot where the ashes contained within the trophy were created in 1998.
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Lord's Father Time Wall celebrates notable milestones at the Ground from both men's and women's cricket, including England Women's historic World Cup victories at Lord's in 1993 and 2017.
- A plaque was unveiled in the Harris Garden in 2023 to mark the spot where the Women’s Ashes were created in 1998.
