Katie Levick: Player welfare "forgotten again" after Project Darwin leak

The Northern Diamonds spinner, who found out last week that her region's tier-one women's team would be based at Durham rather than Yorkshire, is the latest guest on the Under The Lid - Inside Pro Cricket podcast

Nick Friend | 26/04/2024 at 11:09

Northern Diamonds leg-spinner Katie Levick has admitted that she felt player welfare was "forgotten" about in the way that the eight tier-one women's teams were revealed.

Diamonds, whose two co-host counties – Durham and Yorkshire – both made clear that they were bidding strongly for the region, are set to be uprooted from their Headingley base for Chester-le-Street in 2025, after their proposal was nominated for one of eight tier-one teams.

Levick, who sat on the Project Darwin advisory group as a player representative, said that the player group felt blindsided by a leak that meant the eight teams were revealed by the Daily Telegraph last Wednesday when players had been told to expect official word on Thursday.

"(Project Darwin) was the first time I felt like we actually had a seat at the table and were being valued, and they were asking the opinion of the players at every stage," Levick told the Under the Lid podcast, which is produced in partnership by the Professional Cricketers' Association and The Cricketer.

"So, I was really complimentary of that and I thought that was such a brilliant step forward, which made the way that the news got told to us last week hurt all the more.

"To then have it leaked, it felt like we put player welfare at the forefront all throughout the advisory group of Darwin, and then we sort of got forgotten again as players in the last week. So, that has been a bit of a disappointment."

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^{Northern Diamonds were Heyhoe Flint Trophy winners in 2022 (Paul Harding/Getty Images)}

Levick described that as "the main controversial point" of the week, adding that "we were screenshotting the Telegraph headlines to each other". Diamonds have been based predominantly at Headingley since 2020.

Levick said: "It was a really tough week, there is no way around it. It has been the biggest mind-blown thing – the fact that we managed to get on the pitch a few days afterwards is testament to us, because it is such a weird place to have been in.

"You just don't really expect it in professional sport; obviously, there is a lot of upheaval but it's usually through personal choice. For a squad of 18 to find out that your team doesn't essentially exist anymore, it was a tough week to then prepare for the first game of the season."

Yorkshire described themselves as "surprised and disappointed" in a follow-up statement after the formal announcement. Durham, meanwhile, were understandably delighted.

"Our growth in girls playing cricket over the last five years has been the highest in the country," Durham chief executive Tim Bostock told The Guardian.

"Given our track record of producing England players, and our strong development pathways, we have every confidence we'll be able to replicate that for girls moving into elite professional cricket."

The Under The Lid podcast, a collaboration between The Cricketer and the PCA, aims to highlight the realities of being a professional player with weekly episodes featuring personalities from across the circuit.

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