Cricket Australia has today launched its new female participation strategy, titled The Next Innings: Accelerating Female Participation.
During the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Final in March, thousands of women and girls watched their heroes claim the trophy in front of a record-breaking crowd of 86,174 at the MCG.
This was the culmination of years of hard work and a strong partnership with Commonwealth Bank through the Growing Cricket for Girls Fund, which has committed $15 million to enabling grassroots female participation initiatives over the past three years.
Registered participation among women and girls has grown 61% in four years from 47,831 to 76,413 Australia-wide.
Following the release of , The Next Innings aims to build on the momentum, with continued support from the Commonwealth Bank who also share this commitment to grow the women’s game.
The Next Innings outlines the unique challenges of expanding participation among women and girls over the next four years, as well as the work being done to support the clubs who are nurturing the current and future generations of players, coaches, officials and administrators.
In conjunction with external researchers, 12 key insights were gained that will help Australian Cricket continue to meet the challenges of growing participation among girls, increasing the pool of female coaches and creating positive club environments.
Belinda Clark, Cricket Australia Executive General Manager of Community Cricket, said: “We’re really excited to launch The Next Innings: Accelerating Female Participation strategy. We have seen tremendous female growth in the game.”
“It was important for us in this next phase of strategy to understand the barriers to female participation. Female role models that are close to home matter, so with ongoing participation growth, we need to see the number of women coaches, volunteers and administrators also grow.”
In addition, Cricket Australia’s investment in female participation has been further reinforced, providing a funding pool for the clubs that have lead the way in providing opportunities for women and girls so that they can help drive the next steps by implementing The Next Innings strategy.
