Across Middlesex we have over 130 recreational Women and Girls' teams playing the game regularly throughout the course of the cricket season, and today, on International Women's Day, we salute them all, with a celebration of featured images from across the 2022 season.
Our thanks go to all clubs across Middlesex who have kindly responded to our request to send images to us to feature today, and thanks for helping the Women and Girls' game thrive in our county.
The growth in Women and Girls' Cricket has been phenomenal - largely inspired by the England Women's teams heroics back in 2017 when they beat India to lift the ICC Women's World Cup trophy in that amazing final in front of a full house at Lord's.
Middlesex Women have competed in the competitive List-A format of the game since 1980, initially competing in the Women's Area Championship, before it was then re-branded into the official Women's County Championship in 1987. In those early years Middlesex dominated the county scene, winning the first year of the Area Championships before then defending their crown the following season. They again won the title in 1985 - winning three of the opening six years of the county competition.
Since those early years, over 150 Women have represented the Club in the List-A format, although few in those early years would have predicted quite how far the Women's game would develop over the coming years.
In 2020 we saw the birth of the Sunrisers, as the ECB restructured the elite Women's game, and this season we will see no less than ten of those Sunrisers players playing as professionally contracted players at the highest level of the domestic game.
Where before the game was in short nothing more than a pastime, albeit played competitively, now, in the modern day, youngsters entering the game at an early age can genuinely do so knowing that a successful career could be the end result.
Few could argue that this is long overdue, and we are delighted that the recreational game in Middlesex is thriving, with more and more clubs beginning to run Women and Girls' sides as each season passes. Middlesex, as a Club, continues to do all it can to promote the Women and Girls' game, with year-round competitions being run, both indoors and outdoors, to provide a competitive environment for players to play the game.
We thank all those who contribute, celebrate all those who achieve success, and look forward to the Women and Girls' game in Middlesex continuing to thrive in the future.
