Women's cricket campaign highlights groundskeeper
ECBA cricket groundskeeper says she hopes her involvement in the game will encourage more women and girls to take up roles both on and off the cricket pitch.
Yvonne Tweddle, who volunteers with Kings Bromley Cricket Club, near Lichfield, was recognised as part of an England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) initiative to celebrate the contribution women have made to cricket since 1973.
Fifty-three purple seats were unveiled at Edgbaston in Birmingham, ahead of the T20 Women's World Cup starting on Friday, to highlight the range of female roles within the sport.
"I feel really honoured to be part of the group [and] bringing us together is quite a powerful thing to do," Tweddle said.
Organisers said their campaign aimed to showcase what opportunities are available to women and girls, from being players and coaches to volunteers and grounds staff.
Tweddle first got involved in cricket through her family more than a decade ago, as they all played with Kings Bromley.
She started getting involved in the club as a safeguarding officer and then admitted she was drawn to working on the ground itself as a volunteer.
She added it was important to show there were many ways to be involved in cricket beyond playing the game.
"I think for young women and girls coming into the game, hopefully we're a shining example that you can have a go," she said.
"You can do something, you can be part of it, be it the male or female side of the game."
Gemma Barton, head of strategic growth at the ECB, said the project demonstrated they could help make community sport more accessible and inclusive.
"These women all have moments [where] they have created change within the game," she said of the 53.
"Whether that was winning the World Cup themselves, whether that's changing policy, making the game more inclusive, or getting more girls playing cricket every single week within their cricket clubs.
"We're seeing astronomical growth in the women's and girls' game, and it's really important for us that we have more women and girls playing cricket at every single level."
Fidelis Navas, director of Warwickshire Cricket Foundation, said female participation in the county had increased significantly in recent years.
"We have seen a 75% increase in the number of women and girls fixtures in Warwickshire alone, and I know that those kinds of numbers are happening across the country," she said.
"That's why it's so exciting to be here today to champion all the work that's happened, but also thinking about what is to come," she said.
An ECB spokesperson said celebrating women working in a variety of roles helped challenge the perception of who could be involved in cricket.
Tweddle said she wanted to show that everyone could be involved.
"When I became a grounds person, I think the one thing I wanted to do was make it really inclusive," she smiled.
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