Raf Nicholson
Double-headers don't help women's cricket anymore
They are poorly publicised, don't make sense to the fans for a number of reasons, and do little to increase the game's supporter base
Raf Nicholson
07-Feb-2017
As a journalist, I should love double-headers. The food is infinitely better. I have never been offered a massage in the press box of a women's game. And there is always someone there to make your tea for you. Reporting on men's cricket is like a different world.
In actual fact, though, I'd be quite happy to make my own tea in perpetuity if we could dispense with the double-header altogether.
Whoever conceived of double-headers probably had their heart in the right place. The idea was simple: schedule a women's match directly prior to a men's match and you will ensure a bigger crowd and greater exposure, with the women's part of the double-header more likely to be televised.
Full postCA has stolen a march on the ECB by live-streaming women's cricket
This year's WBBL has demonstrated CA's lead in making women's cricket visible to a wider audience. The ECB must follow suit
Raf Nicholson
20-Jan-2017
On Boxing Day this year, I did something I wouldn't normally do: I set my alarm for 5am. The reason? Hobart Hurricanes were playing Adelaide Strikers in the Women's Big Bash League, and I wanted to watch.
What transpired was an innings of 103 not out off 48 balls, including eight sixes, by Sophie Devine - a record innings in every way. Strikers chased down 144 and won by seven wickets. Worth getting up for.
Sleep, in fact, has been a precious commodity these past few weeks, and I lay the blame for that entirely at the doorstep of Cricket Australia. It was CA, you see, who made the decision to live-stream every single match of this year's WBBL (bar those being shown on television) via cricket.com.au. It is CA's doing that, several times a week for the last month, high-quality women's cricket has been available in my living room, 10,000 miles away from its source.
Full postWhere are the women on England cricket's power list?
A magazine's recent ranking of the game's influential figures reveals just how much women's cricket has lost
Raf Nicholson
01-Nov-2016
Last month, the Cricketer magazine published what it termed a "power list" of English cricket, as decided by its editorial team. In case you're curious and you missed it at the time, ECB chairman Colin Graves topped the list. Managing director Andrew Strauss came in at No. 2. Current players Joe Root and Alastair Cook both appeared in the top ten. Several commentators and cricket correspondents - Michael Vaughan (7), Mike Atherton (11), Jonathan Agnew (15) - also featured.
How was such a list decided upon? The Cricketer's editor, Simon Hughes, had this to say: "We asked, who makes the decisions and drives initiatives and sways opinion? Who sets the agendas? Who persuades broadcasters and sponsors to part with their money? Which players, or ex-players, are the most important? Who really influences the public's view of the game?
"We took into account status, authority, credibility, reputation, skill and, where appropriate, social media reach."
Full postThe Women's Super League is a hit
The crowds have come in in their thousands, the matches are exciting, there's young talent in the ranks. Pity it's not on TV
Raf Nicholson
14-Aug-2016
Now that the group stage of the inaugural Kia Super League is almost over, with finals day just around the corner, it's a good time to look back and assess what we have learned from this exciting new competition. Here are my initial thoughts.
1. Tell them about it and they will come
Two weeks ago nobody - even, if they are honest, those running it at the ECB - quite knew what to expect from the Super League. It was notoriously difficult to get anyone to say exactly what "success" for this new competition would look like. Now? Well, let's just say I'm pretty sure that Clare Connor, the ECB's director for women's cricket, is sleeping at night again.
Two weeks ago nobody - even, if they are honest, those running it at the ECB - quite knew what to expect from the Super League. It was notoriously difficult to get anyone to say exactly what "success" for this new competition would look like. Now? Well, let's just say I'm pretty sure that Clare Connor, the ECB's director for women's cricket, is sleeping at night again.
At the time of writing, there has been an average attendance of over 1000 at the group games so far, and the matches at the Ageas Bowl and The Oval have attracted over 2000 spectators apiece. As someone who is used to turning up to watch women's county games with next to no spectators bar the friends and family of the players, let me tell you, that is absolutely phenomenal.
Full postBring on the Super League
League cricket has had a presence in the women's game in England for dozens of years, and the KSL looks set to build on that tradition
Raf Nicholson
18-Jul-2016
"#BeAGameChanger," the ECB tweeted in April this year, when it was nominated by the Women's Sport Trust as National Governing Body of the Year. "History will be made this summer, when the inaugural Kia Super League is launched."
England has a long and chequered history of women's league cricket. Women's leagues have existed in the north of England since the 1920s, organised in places where men's league cricket had traditionally been strong: mainly Lancashire and Yorkshire. Bradford, for example, staged a Women's Evening Cricket League, which by 1932 had 23 teams enrolled. In 1930, Keighley CC of the Bradford League organised the Keighley Ladies' Cricket Competition, a knockout tournament where the cup was provided by the mothers of the Keighley men's team. The Yorkshire Evening Post described one women's league match in 1931 as "a grimly fought out struggle… Bradfordians should roll up in force to encourage their womenfolk in the field".
In some ways the Kia Super League is simply a continuation of this radical tradition of women's league cricket in England. Northern league cricket in the 1930s changed the face of women's cricket for good. Why? Because it was one of the first times that female cricketers in England could receive payment for their activities. While players were not paid directly, collections were made for outstanding performances: in 1930, a Mrs L Wilson was paid £4 in two successive matches, having taken a hat-trick in each.
Full postLetting go of Lottie
Charlotte Edwards influenced not only the women's game but also those who covered it
Raf Nicholson
09-Jun-2016
Where is the line between journalist and fan? It's a question I found myself musing upon a few weeks ago in a small hospitality box at Lord's - the hospitality box where Charlotte Edwards announced, after 20 years as one of the best female cricketers in the world, that she was retiring from international duty.
Sometimes it is an easy distinction to maintain. You do an interview, write it up, send it off, it gets published and then you move on. But sometimes it is more difficult.
My own apprenticeship into the world of the press box involved a tent on the edge of the boundary at Wormsley cricket ground, reporting on an England-Australia Test match. In the space of four days I had to unlearn what my dad had drilled into me for the previous 25 years - that Australian cricketers are The Enemy. Apparently, too, it is not the Done Thing to cheer loudly when England take a wicket if you have a press pass round your neck.
Full postWomen's pay should not depend on results
Professionalism means rewarding your players well irrespective of on-field results. Australia has set a good example
Raf Nicholson
28-Apr-2016
If you happen to be Ellyse Perry, Meg Lanning or Alex Blackwell, you'd be forgiven for greeting the news that you will now be able to earn in excess of $100,000 a year - a pay rise announced earlier this month by Cricket Australia - with sheer uncomplicated pleasure.
And yet the news that Cricket Australia has increased its female player payment pool from $2.36 million to $4.23 million, with maximum retainers for the Southern Stars rising from $49,000 to $65,000, is not just about a pay rise. It is much more important than that.
The idea that women should be financially rewarded for representing their country at cricket appears, at least in England and Australia, to be becoming a generally accepted one. Back in 1976, Rachael Heyhoe-Flint wrote that: "Women will always play for the love of the game and there will be no professional female cricketers." Fast forward 40 years and we are moving towards a world where it is not a question of whether women will get paid to represent their country, but how much.
Full postWhat have we learnt from the Women's World T20?
The WBBL helped West Indies but maybe not Australia. And double-headers may be redundant now
Raf Nicholson
06-Apr-2016
World Cups are normally a good time to get people who might otherwise simply ignore it talking about the women's game. This one has been no different. It's been a crazy few weeks, but now it's over, what are the questions on everyone's lips?
1. How did West Indies do it?
They cried when they lost their group match to England off the last ball, thinking they were going home. They damn near lost their all-or-nothing game against India. It wasn't surprising that when we ran a poll on CRICKETher a few days before the semi-finals, asking who would win the tournament, both England and New Zealand secured 44% of the vote, Australia managed 13% - and West Indies got 0%. If anyone tells you they predicted the final result, then trust me, they'd be lying.
They cried when they lost their group match to England off the last ball, thinking they were going home. They damn near lost their all-or-nothing game against India. It wasn't surprising that when we ran a poll on CRICKETher a few days before the semi-finals, asking who would win the tournament, both England and New Zealand secured 44% of the vote, Australia managed 13% - and West Indies got 0%. If anyone tells you they predicted the final result, then trust me, they'd be lying.
So how did they do it? Perhaps there's something about being the underdog that gives you the freedom to go out there and bat like Stafanie Taylor and Hayley Matthews did in that final. Perhaps, in Matthews' case, it was partly the audacity of youth - why shouldn't she take on Ellyse Perry? Perhaps they simply believed in themselves as a team even when no one else did.
Full postWomen mean business too
That the women players flew economy class to India for the World T20 shows that the ICC still has much to do to establish equality with the men
Raf Nicholson
20-Mar-2016
A couple of weeks ago we broke a story on CRICKETher about England Women being flown out to the World T20 in India in cattle class, while the men's team travelled in business class. They were not alone. It is the ICC that arranges and funds flights for world tournaments; all other women's teams - bar Australia, who were upgraded to business class* by CA - also flew to the tournament in economy.
It's a story that was subsequently picked up by several media outlets, including ESPNcricinfo. The official response to the story from the ICC has been that they have already placed a huge amount of investment and resources into developing the women's game in recent times. Prize money, they say, has increased for the women's competition by 400%. And this time round, with an increased number of playing venues from 2014, there is "a genuine integration of the competition with the men's event".
Sometimes I think that cricket officials must read my articles and think: what are you complaining about?
Full postIs women's cricket moving into a more competitive era?
More series wins like India's in Australia are needed to ensure a more level playing field and competitive tournaments
Raf Nicholson
17-Feb-2016
The headlines as we approach the Women's World T20, due to begin next month in India, will no doubt be much of a muchness. Namely: can Australia make history by pulling off a fourth-successive victory in the tournament?
As the last World T20 was approaching, two years ago, the headlines were exactly the same. Back then the only difference was the number of consecutive victories that the Southern Stars were aiming to achieve. They were still the pre-tournament favourites, just as they surely are this time around.
This Australian team are more than just reigning world champions, however. Across the past three World T20 tournaments, the Southern Stars have dropped a total of just two games - against England in 2012 and New Zealand in 2014. In the calendar years 2014 and 2015, they lost a mere four out of 23 T20s they played - all four of those defeats coming against England or New Zealand.
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