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Women and Girls

MCC is committed to improving gender equality & inclusivity within cricket. Information on the Club’s initiatives to support and promote women’s and girls’ involvement in the game can be found below.

Increasing Female Membership

MCC is actively looking for women to join MCC to become part of its passionate women’s cricketing community.

There are two routes to MCC membership:

MCC is seeking female cricketers to join one of the world’s most active cricket clubs. In joining, female members will become part of a community playing at Lord’s and other incredible venues across the country. Players can experience annual overseas tours, and cricket can even be played alongside any other cricket commitments.

MCC Women currently have over 70 fixtures a year, across all days of the week, playing competitive cricket against a variety of oppositions, from schools to county sides to the Armed Forces. Membership is a great way to play an active role in the future of the game for women and girls, make new connections and friends, as well as open future opportunities within the sport.

MCC is looking for cricketers playing regular club cricket or higher to grow our community. Membership costs vary depending on your age and where you live, but if you’re looking to play, it can cost less than £90 a year. Playing for MCC is also the quickest route to Full membership; Playing Members can have access to Lord’s Pavilion on matchdays in as little as three years. 

If you are interested in playing cricket for MCC, please fill in the form below:

MCC Playing Membership Interest Form

If you have any questions, please contact:

Emma Marsh (Women’s Cricket Officer) – women.cricket@mcc.org.uk

MCC are also actively encouraging women to sign up for Non-Playing membership. As a private members club, prospective members begin their application by proposal through an existing Full or Senior Member. However, we understand that not everyone wishing to join MCC knows a current member. We would therefore encourage any women wishing to join the waiting list without someone to put them forward to contact women.cricket@mcc.org.uk. A member of staff will then be in contact to support with the application process.

More information about MCC membership and the application process can be found here:

How to join MCC

MCC Women's and Girls' Strategy

Women’s cricket is soaring in popularity, and as the sport continues to grow across the world, MCC recognises that work still needs to be done with regards to gender equality within our sport.

MCC’s EDI strategy has the promotion and support of women's and girls' involvement in cricket as a key priority; not just in a playing capacity, but also in terms of administration and the gender diversification of MCC's workforce and membership.

Cricket

Opening the pathway in both professional and grassroots women's cricket has been an important target area for MCC. We believe that by combining an increase in the amount of women's cricket played at Lord's with efforts to increase girls' participation in youth cricket, the Club has a big part to play in the future involvement of women and girls within our sport.

 

Through MCC's own Community team and the work of the MCC Foundation (the charitable arm of MCC), we are delivering a number of girls' grassroots cricket initiatives on a local, national and international level.

  • Strategic focus on growing spectator interest in the women's game.

  • In 2024, there were 15 match days which included women’s cricket.  It was also announced this year that in 2026, Lord’s will host its first women’s Test match, which will be a historic moment for the Ground.

  • Proud to be the only ground to be allocated a women's international match every year up to and including 2031.

  • Record attendance for a home bilateral England Women's fixture un 2022. 

  • In partnership with Middlesex Cricket we are delivering a 50:50 gender split for All Stars and Dynamos Centre bursaries.

  • Our after-school community cricket programme has 56% male/44% female participants

  • Around 4,700 young people engaged the MCC Foundation Hub programme – the number of female players has grown by 55% in the past two years.

  • Hosted the first ever U18 Girls' match on the Main Ground at Lord's in 2021.

  • England Womens' Heather Knight, Maia Bouchier and Sophia Dunkley are all MCCF Ambassadors. So too is Brazil Women's Captain, Roberta Avery.

READ MCCF'S 2022 REVIEW

  • Coached over 6,000 young people through our programmes across four regions of Nepal – 60% of these are girls.

  • 45 female beneficiaries have been selected to play for their districts in Nepal.

  • Helping to train young female Syrian refugees in Lebanon to become ICC-accredited cricket coaches.

  • In Sri Lanka, recently helped three girls who receive MCCF scholarships to gain selection into the Sri Lanka U19 World Cup squad.

Membership and Committees 

MCC operated as a men-only club for the first 211 years of its existence, until 1998, when the Club's membership voted to welcome women to join them as Members. By encouraging women to become Members and to participate on our Committees, we are creating a fair and equitable environment that enables MCC to benefit from a greater variety of perspectives and contributions.

  • Membership applications are now made online, to simplify the process and remove barriers to entry to encourage a diverse range of applicants.
  • These changes resulted in an increased number of female applicants, rising to 24% in the first three months of the new process.

  • Re-structuring of the MCC Committee, has led to 25% female representation, despite a reduction in the overall size of the group.

  • Our World Cricket committee includes an even greater proportion of female representation, with four women on the group, including England captain Heather Knight and former MCC President Clare Connor (herself also a former England captain).

Staff

Gender diversity in our workforce is essential to the success of the Club. Equal representation of female staff allows MCC to attract the best candidates and ensures that every department benefits from a wide range of perspectives coming from different life experiences, fuelling innovation, improvement and excellence.

  • Appointed recruitment agencies who champion diversity, with the aim of seeing a year-on-year increase of gender diversification of senior staff.

  • Eliminating the gender pay gap remains an important target, and MCC has committed to report annually on this matter.

  • Offered female coaching scholarships to increase gender diversification of coaching workforce.

Heritage and Collections

Lord's is home to one of the most significant historical collections in sport, ensuring MCC has a unique opportunity to promote knowledge and awareness of the history of women's cricket. 

Our Heritage & Collections department is committed to the fair representation of women's cricket around the Ground as well as within the MCC Museum, to recognise the contribution and achievements of women and girls.

  • Our ground-breaking Evolution of Women's Cricket exhibition was supported by the delivery of a Long Room symposium dedicated to the themes covered by the displays.

  • This exhibition was enhanced by the acquisition of the Women's Cricket Association archive. 

  • We are committed to adding further material relating to women's cricket to the MCC archive to provide an accessible resource for historical research.

  • The Heyhoe Flint Gate was installed on the same St. John's Wood Road frontage as the Grace Gate, presenting a permanent memorial to the legacy of Rachael Heyhoe Flint as one of the great cricketing pioneers.

  • Lord's Father Time Wall celebrates notable milestones at the Ground from both men's and women's cricket, including England Women's historic World Cup victories at Lord's in 1993 and 2017.

  • A plaque was unveiled in the Harris Garden in 2023 to mark the spot where the Women’s Ashes were created in 1998.

 

Equity, Diversity and inclusion plan 2022-23