England and Wales Cricket Board has learned from past errors and a radical shake-up offers hope to the women’s game
The report of the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) released last June was shocking for its minutiae: the devil of institutional sexism in cricket is, as they say, in the detail. The report was damning about the culture of the first-class counties, describing “instances of violent and degrading behaviour” towards female staff. One witness reported being forced to lock herself in her office to avoid sexual harassment by the club’s male cricketers; another, being called “an ’effing butch” by a colleague after she raised the issue of gender equity in a meeting.
So goes county cricket in the 21st century. In the light of this, the decision of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) – in a radical shake-up of the domestic system announced this week– to hand over control of women’s cricket away from the independent regions back to the counties may seem questionable.
