Champions in the Making: the Route to English Women's World Cup Victory

Emma John

Read the full article: https://www.theguardian.com/cricket-has-no-boundaries/2017/jun/20/wicket-maidens-the-surprising-history-of-womens-cricket

...Isabelle Duncan, author of a recent history of women’s cricket, admits that it is tempting, having counted the vast strides the women’s game has made, to imagine it only in terms of the recent past. “You tend to think women’s cricket started two minutes ago, but the depth of the history surprises everybody,” she says.

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“But it goes downhill from there,” says Duncan. “Women were practically locked up behind high walls at school, cricket wasn’t considered becoming for a lady, and the industrial revolution put a stop to the game among the working classes, because they were too tired to play. Everybody became prudish and it went completely backwards. There were still some very talented women, like WG Grace’s daughter, Betty, but then he himself stopped her playing. She left school never to play again – it was just criminal! But those were the prevailing attitudes.”

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“That was the way they played,” says Duncan. “It was pretty boring, there was a slow over rate and of course the players weren’t trained so they weren’t so athletic. Heyhoe Flint was thought of as very successful because she didn’t lose matches, even if she didn’t win them. She would bat for eight hours in a war of attrition. But that was the style of the place, and the state of the pitches – it was often equally boring in the men’s game too.”