Hundred crowds provide evidence for England Women to consider international venue strategy

NICK FRIEND: The great irony is that without the interruption of the pandemic and its subsequent complications, The Hundred would not have been able to provide the proof it offered this year as to the possibilities for the women's game

The possibility of staging England Women’s fixtures at bigger venues in future summers is “a live conversation”, according to Clare Connor, with the success of The Hundred playing a vital role in pushing the case.

In 2021, matches against India and New Zealand were held at Bristol, Taunton, Worcester, Northampton, Hove, Chelmsford, Derby, Leicester and Canterbury – all very familiar to Heather Knight’s side.

In the last decade, England Women have played just 12 games – six ODIs and six T20Is – at the traditionally larger venues where men’s international cricket routinely takes place, and none since defeating New Zealand in a 50-over contest at Headingley in 2018.

To an extent, that imbalance has been deliberately plotted: England have created intimidating atmospheres at compact grounds such as Chelmsford, Hove and Taunton, where they can rely on healthy crowds and not risk swathes of empty seats, as was found at the Ageas Bowl for the Charlotte Edwards Cup Finals Day.

But one upshot of The Hundred was the realisation that the audience exists for regular, well-marketed, high-quality women’s cricket at venues of greater capacity.

“Without putting too much business speak on it,” Connor, ECB managing director for women’s cricket, told The Cricketer, “what is the strategy to move England Women from X number of days per year at venues, virtually none of which can hold more than 4,000? What is the strategy by which you connect what we’ve learned from The Hundred and its ticket purchases to England Women?

^{England only ever played a single ODI at Headingley}

“It has given us this amazing opportunity that we weren’t expecting to be so significant so quickly. What is the venue strategy?

“This is another chapter for me, I suppose. The next chapter is working that out. Do we gradually start to shift the T20Is into the bigger stadia? We’ve obviously got the huge potential of the Commonwealth Games next year, with free-to-air coverage every day, and The Hundred next to each other. And then, it’s the Ashes in 2023. The opportunity is there; it’s just working out how to navigate the steps. That’s the reality.”

The great irony is that without the interruption of the pandemic and its subsequent complications, The Hundred would not have been able to provide the proof it offered this year. It was easily forgotten amid the success of the women’s tournament that the initial plan was for a far greater degree of separation, with 20 venues to be used across the country – among them Sedbergh School and York Cricket Club – and only a smattering of occasional doubleheaders at major stadia.

And even when it was announced that – for reasons predominantly of operational ease – doubleheaders would be the order of the day, there was no guarantee that things would play out so positively. Speaking in February, England seamer Kate Cross and Beth Barrett-Wild, head of The Hundred Women’s Competition, acknowledged that doubleheaders had historically not always worked as intended, previously being seen as “a dirty word” and “where we are seen as the warmup act”.

Connor only played two T20Is and neither were doubleheaders, but she admits to initially sharing her colleagues’ concerns: “You’re just hoping against hope that there aren’t just 800 people there.”

But those worries were put to rest on a game-changing launch night at the Kia Oval. The crowd figures for women’s games across the 30-day competition were collected at the innings break; overall, the average attendance was around 8,000. In London, it was nearer 11,500.

“If you put that in the context of international women’s sport and the Kia Super League and most domestic women’s sport competitions around the world, that’s really pleasing,” Connor said.

^{England have built up strong fanbases at grounds like Chelmsford}

“We have to remember that these weren’t one-off finals like the World Cup final (when England and India sold out Lord’s in 2017). This was every single day for a month. You sort of think: ‘Is this going to wane?’ Are people going to have bought their one or two tickets and then not have enough money to keep buying tickets? To see the fact that those were sustained attendances for 30 days, that’s what I mean. If you try to evaluate the women’s competition from every lens, it exceeded in every single department.

“The silver lining of the postponement (in 2020) was that we went to that doubleheader model, which has given us that opportunity and proof that we wouldn’t have had if we just had a couple of thousand at the smaller venues for each game.

“Putting brand-new professional players on the big stage, with 15,000 people here and a couple of million watching on BBC and Sky, it would be completely inauthentic to say that, even those of us completely rooted in the game, weren’t to a degree unbelievably apprehensive. Feeling those apprehensions melt away was a lovely feeling.”

Connor suggested as well that “another interesting conversation for next year” is whether to flip over some matchdays, with the men’s fixture taking place first and the women’s game in the evening.

Interestingly, the paradox now exists where England players are playing in front of bigger crowds in their domestic competition than when they represent their country. Likewise, for youngsters like Charlie Dean, Issy Wong, Maia Bouchier, Emma Lamb and Emily Arlott – all of whom have been involved in England squads over the last 12 months, The Hundred experience is all they know of the top level. They could be forgiven for anticipating more of the same in England colours.

On top of her ECB role, Connor has taken over from Kumar Sangakkara as MCC president. England Women returning to Lord’s for the first time since 2017 during her tenure is perhaps not beyond the realms of possibility. Already confirmed, though, are next summer’s Commonwealth Games, set for Edgbaston next summer in late July and early August, with The Hundred following after cricket’s return to the multisport event.

^{England are yet to return to Lord's since filling the Home of Cricket for the 2017 World Cup final}

“We’re just looking at whether the men’s and women’s [Hundred competitions] start at the same time or whether the women start slightly later and what are the pros and cons of that. The obvious performance benefit of starting the women a little bit later is that all of the players are in it – the England players and overseas players.

“The negative is that we’re almost going against our overriding principle of it being a game for men’s and women’s teams from ball one. We’re just working that through.”

The other aspect up for consideration is the geography of the England Women roadshow, which has mostly been a southern affair in recent times despite the presence of Cross and Sophie Ecclestone, both of whom are proud, high-profile Lancastrians, and Lauren Winfield-Hill and Katherine Brunt, both Yorkshire natives. England’s centrally contracted players have raised this, as have the public on social media.

“The reason that’s been the case to date is because most of the smaller venues are south of Leicester and Derby,” Connor explains. “Up there, you’ve only got Durham, Headingley and Emirates Old Trafford. That geographical challenge in relation to where we have played, we do need to factor in the player view.”

They haven’t played north of Derby since the solitary Headingley ODI in 2018 – the only one hosted at the ground, though England have also played three 50-over matches at Scarborough. They haven’t played at Emirates Old Trafford since a 2012 T20I against West Indies. Indeed, when a women’s ODI last took place there, Connor was England’s captain.

The impact of The Hundred, however, like so much in the women’s game, might just change that.