Duncan - Skirting the Boundary: a History of Womens Cricket

N ot enough has been written about womens cricket. This may have been understandable in the early and middle part of the last century, when womens cricket existed in a twilight world, regarded as a sporting occupation for ladies who could perhaps be most tactfully described as unconventional. Even in the 1960s and 1970s, the era of the great Rachael Heyhoe Flint, the first female cricketer to prove that femininity could still flourish with a bat or ball in hand, womens cricket was treated with little short of derision in many sporting circles. Today, in the first part of the twenty-first century, this attitude no longer has currency, particularly in England, where the national womens team has established itself as the worlds number one with the Ashes and two World Cups to its credit. Even our politicians have noticed this.

Skirting the Boundary intends to fill this yawning gap in cricket literature. If it will also fill a gap in feminist literature, I cannot emphasise too strongly that I am no bra-burning, man-hating , equality-at-any-price virago. Like the great Rachael, I love the company of men almost as much as I love cricket (and if the mood and music are right, even more than cricket).

I am not alone. More and more women and girls have taken up this great game in recent years with the support (at last) of many august cricketing bodies such as Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the Cricket Foundation (and its attempts to bring cricket back to state schools), Chance to Shine and amateur cricket clubs all over the world. Even the International Cricket Council (ICC) is recognising the distaff contribution to the greatest game. More and more women are watching cricket, writing about cricket and, of course, playing cricket.

The best place to begin is, as always, at the beginning, when ladies made their first mark on cricket in the late eighteenth century amid frantic betting and rowdy crowd scenes. Then on to the highs and lows of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, culminating in our twenty-first-century heroines who are dominating world cricket and are on the cusp of turning professional.

Part of my job will be to trace the history of the womens game, delving into its sometimes murky past and examining the recent explosion in its popularity. The last book of any note about womens cricket was published in 1976 Fair Play by Rachael Heyhoe Flint and Netta Rheinberg. There is, therefore, a dire need for a racy update less of the straight bat and more of the reverse sweep.

This book will contain plenty of photographs from the frankly amazing portraits of the teams of fifty or a hundred years ago (no ban on pipe smokers) to the frankly sexy pictures of many of todays modern practitioners.

I want to shed light on some of the more remarkable and interesting stories and individuals (females only) who have had some sort of love affair with this great game, on the notable and sometimes controversial figures who have dared to cross the boundary into this male-dominated world.

My own obsession with cricket pervades every part of my life and I dont seem to have time for much else. I have played cricket since forever and I currently captain an otherwise all-male team at Albury Cricket Club in a Surrey league, as well as turning up for a number of nomadic jazz-hat sides including the Invalids, the Heartaches, the Bunburys, the Nomads and MCC.

There are a number of women out there who prefer to play cricket with the chaps, and I am one of them. There are plenty of amusing stories to come out of this and Ive got a few of them up my sleeve. Being asked in front of a lot of gawping men whether you wear a box, or being whacked in the boob by a cricket ball are regular occurrences . If the latter, you always get keen offers to rub it better and invitations to join the team in the showers afterwards . Most decent chaps soon forget youre a girl (on the pitch anyway) and treat you with respect once you have shown you can compete on their level. However, one or two remain stroppy

My work in the cricket coaching arena brings me face to face with grass-roots cricket as I run a coaching company for boys and girls aged four to twelve years old. We travel the highways and byways of Surrey and Sussex bringing the joys of cricket into the playgrounds of state primary schools. The talent and enthusiasm out there from both boys and girls is significant; it is hugely reassuring for the future of the game and it must be nurtured.

My involvement in grass-roots cricket extends into assisting the cricket charity Chance to Shine in some of its endeavours . Chance to Shine is a remarkably successful charity and has worked wonders with girls cricket 44 per cent of their 1.8 million children are girls. We have just launched Girls on the Front Foot, an initiative aimed at sustaining and developing the charitys work with girls. Our board is littered with distinguished ladies from the sport, business and media worlds, among them Charlotte Edwards MBE (current England captain), Lucy Neville-Rolfe DBE and Clare Connor OBE (ECB Head of Womens Cricket). At Chance to Shine the girls are on an equal footing with the boys, united in the belief that cricket will raise aspirations and develop the values needed for a successful and fulfilling life.

I was lucky enough to be involved in the hoo-ha of MCC finally admitting women within the hallowed walls of the Pavilion at Lords. Just before the final vote in 1998 I was asked by Wisden Cricketer magazine if I would pose for their front cover in an MCC sweater. Controversial stuff, as I was obviously not a member then, but I agreed in the end as I felt it would draw attention to the debate and make people think. I didnt want to appear as a feminist flag-bearer, more as a reminder that we girls were knocking on the Long Room door girls who loved cricket and who felt we had a right to watch this beautiful game from the best seats in the house. It may be a private club but its in a public arena with a public responsibility.

I have now been a member of MCC since 2002 and I play for the Club, sit on a committee and even a disciplinary panel(!), which allows me an intriguing insight into this distinguished bastion of cricket. Some of the crimes of MCC members (usually male, it must be said) are hilarious. In October 2013, Vicky Griffiths and I will join the main MCC Committee for our first term around the big table at Lords. The only other lady to have graced the sumptuous leather chairs in the Committee Room is Rachael Heyhoe Flint.

So, the girls are here to stay and their cricketing genius is unquestionably destined for universal appreciation and its ultimate rewards. This could not have been better illustrated than in the 2013 Womens World Cup

The Aussies back on top of the world in the 2013 World Cup in India.