The sport back in the global spotlight
During this year’s T20 Cricket World Cup, Team USA pulled off a shocking victory over rival Pakistan—bringing newfound global attention to the beloved sport. But the game’s popularity has already seen positive momentum—especially among women and girls around the world.
According to Cricket Australia, participation among women and girls in cricket clubs was up 26 per cent last season, with more than 50,000 registering to play. In England and Wales, more than 700 new women’s and girls’ cricket teams were created in 2023. In India, last year saw the first women’s cricket league created with equal status to the men—and the sport has proved as popular as ever, with matches drawing crowds of more than 30,000.
“Sport can be a great enabler for equality,” said Sachin Tendulkar, a well known male cricketer who went viral after posting a video of girls and boys playing cricket together.
Mithali Raj, one of the world’s top paid cricketers who’s now retired, recently applauded a landmark decision to pay women and men equally for contracted matches. “Since 2017, one can see that women’s cricket has grown not just in terms of standards, but also viewership and the amount of people who are keen to follow women cricket,” she told Hindustan Times. “Women’s cricket has its own fan base and can now be a sustainable career.”
The sport will see even more time in the spotlight as it will return to the 2028 Olympics for the first time since the 1900 Paris Olympics, with six men’s teams and six women’s teams going for the gold.
July 26, 1745
The first recorded cricket match between women
