The England & Wales Cricket Board recently
announced that it had produced an ambitious plan to revolutionise women’s
cricket. The plan will receive £20 million in funding, split over two years and
the ECB has left the door open for a rise to £50 million over five years.

Announced in early October, the plan includes 40 new
professional contracts for female cricketers, worth approximately £27,500. This
would mean they match the minimum wage given to male county cricketers. This
new 40 would be in addition to the existing 21 players on the women’s England
national team.

Wider Cultural
Change

This plan is part of a broader cultural change across
all sports to strive for a greater balance across genders. A recent
announcement by World Rugby will see the word “Women’s” dropped from
the Rugby World Cup competition for females so that no distinction can be drawn
between it and the male tournament. The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which was
held in France, was also the biggest competition in the tournament’s history,
receiving more media coverage than in previous years.

Taking the Fight
to Australia

Australia has been leading the way in women’s cricket
for many years. Their national team is by far the best in the world,
demonstrated by a recent one-sided match with Sri Lanka in a T20 series. This
success is partially thanks to the opportunities presented by the strong
domestic women’s league.

The Women’s Big Bash League is Australia’s Twenty20
league for women. Consisting of eight teams, the WBBL has been operating since
2015, replacing the Australian Women’s Twenty20 Cup.

On its route to this success, Australia has made
similar investments in women’s cricket. Helping it to have more than 100
professional female cricketers.

10-Point Plan

The £20 million of funding has been set out to deliver
five critical objectives across a 10-point plan. The ECB hopes to improve the
participation of women in the sport, develop pathways for them, and increase
the performance of women’s cricket teams. It also hopes to raise
the profile of the sport and create a focus on “people” within cricket.

The plan will create eight new regional cubs to
identify and train new talent. A semi-professional structure of eight teams
based from these hubs will play Twenty20 and 50-over cricket. The ECB will
announce in December where these hubs will be located.