Heather Knight and Tammy Beaumont join virtual cricket club to discuss future of women's game with fans

Proceeds are donated to the Professional Cricketers' Trust, whose finances are already stretched because of the impact of the pandemic

As England's men embark on the next leg of their winter odyssey it might be an odd time to bring up the women’s game.

But England are playing their own series in New Zealand next month and this is the year that more women (41) are embarking on a professional cricket career than ever before.

Women’s cricket is vital for the future of the game. Ask any male England player, and the majority of female ones, how they got into the game and they will say it was through a male figure – be it father, brother, uncle or so on.

I am currently researching a documentary on England’s 2019 World Cup win and privately interviewing all the participants. Every one has a similar tale of a male relative or friend first introducing them to the game.

Just think if cricket was seen as a more attarctive, viable and long-term option for women and girls, how many more players of all genders we might eventually unearth.

Project forward 10 years and all those current and future female players will have kids (or nieces and nephews) of their own who they might encourage to play cricket.

^{Heather Knight and Tammy Beaumont join the virtual cricket club this week}

That could double cricket’s intake.

Also, around 80 per cent of primary school teachers are women and the more awareness there is around the women’s game, the more of those teachers might become fans or coaches and encourage their pupils to play cricket rather than other sports in the playground.

In the virtual cricket club in aid of the Professional Cricketers Trust tonight we are focusing on how to raise more awareness of and participation in women’s cricket.

Our special guests are England stars Heather Knight and Tammy Beaumont, live from New Zealand, and Northern Diamonds’ Phoebe Graham, who has given up a good job at Sky to become one of those 41 women professionals.

Proceeds are donated to the Professional Cricketers' Trust, whose finances are already stretched because of the impact of the pandemic. They will need to find even more resources now to support those new female professionals. Every little helps.

Please join our club by clicking here. It is £6 a month to join, but that includes four live events, including a special appearance by Sir Ian Botham next Thursday (February 4), to look back 40 years at that epic 1981 Ashes and look ahead to India v England.