A Sussex cricket coach – celebrated by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) as one of 53 women changing the game – is encouraging more women and girls to take up the sport.
Alexia Walker, who is women’s head coach at Sussex, was included on the ECB list released earlier this year to commemorate 53 years since England won the inaugural Women’s World Cup.
The former England international started playing cricket at her local primary school in the early 90s when a Sussex coach began delivering after-school sessions and she thought she would give the sport a go.
Just 6 months after picking up a bat for the first time, Walker was representing Sussex and captaining her school team.
Walker often found herself the only girl in the team, but speaking in support of Brighton & Hove City Council’s Sport Lifts Her Higher campaign, she was enthusiastic about the wealth of opportunities now open to girls in the game – and eager to see more women and girls take up the sport.
Walker explained: “I was sporty as a child and tried every sport I could, but I was just swept up by cricket.
“Back then, I was often the only girl, but I didn’t really care. I just loved the sport.
“I was fortunate that even then the structure was here at Sussex that meant I could access opportunities, but I know that wouldn’t have been the case for everyone.
“Looking back, not one of my friends who were girls played cricket. I always had supportive team mates and parents who encouraged me to keep going, but the barriers were there.
“When I started, Brighton & Hove Women was the only women’s team locally. We didn’t really have girls’ teams around then. Now there’s hundreds of clubs with girls’ sections, women’s clubs, softball clubs, evening cricket sessions – there’s so many opportunities for women and girls of any age to get involved.
“I’m so pleased those opportunities are there and we’re seeing more women and girls than ever try cricket.”
Challenging stereotypes
Much of Walker’s career in cricket has been about breaking barriers, challenging stereotypes and growing the game.
As well as captaining England A and playing for Sussex, Loughborough University, Brighton and Hove CC and Horsham CC, Walker has blazed a trail in a range of off-field roles.
She was a first team analyst at Leicestershire CCC, performance manager and assistant coach at Loughborough University and director of cricket at Brighton College. At 27 she became the youngest person ever to gain a level 4 coaching qualification.
Walker also spent more than a decade at Brighton Aldridge Community Academy, first launching and then developing the school’s successful cricket academy – a pathway which supported more than 200 local young people during her time there and continues to do so today.
Her career has created countless opportunities for girls within the game, but also tackled other persistent barriers and inequalities historically linked to cricket, including opening up access to working class communities in the city.
And having herself benefited from the opportunities offered by Sussex CCC, it’s perhaps fitting she has now come full circle and is helping drive that work herself.
Sussex is a tier two women’s county structure, meaning players are not full-time professional sportswomen, but are given opportunities to train and play within an elite environment.
It has proved a successful set-up not just in helping players develop and progress higher up the women’s game – and plenty have moved from Sussex to full-time cricket – but also in establishing a genuine pathway for local players.
Leading the way on female participation
Together with the Sussex Cricket Foundation, Sussex CCC and the vast network of local clubs throughout the county – including many here in Brighton & Hove – is leading the way on increasing female participation in the sport.
And it is that mix of county-level performance with mass participation which dovetails perfectly with the council’s Sport Lifts Her Higher campaign.
Research shows girls miss out on 1.4 hours of sport a week compared with boys – the equivalent of 52 football matches a year.
One in three girls also said boys had access to a wider range of sports.
However, more than half of girls surveyed said watching professional athletes inspired them to play, and two-thirds agreed that seeing diverse athletes showed sport was for everyone.
Part of the campaign, therefore, focuses on increasing the visibility of elite sport taking place in the city and celebrating the impact it has on local girls.
Growing number of role models
That growth in visibility of women’s sport has certainly been the case with cricket in Brighton & Hove. Sussex have been offering free entry to home women’s T20 fixtures this season and continue to attract high-profile one-off fixtures to Hove, including the women’s T20 international between England and New Zealand earlier this summer.
And there are a growing number of local roles models showing what is possible within the game.
Georgia Adams started her career at Sussex and is now one of the most respected and recognisable players in the game thanks to career that has taken her around the world – albeit Walker will always remember her fondly as one of the girls she helped coach as she discovered and began mastering the game.
Elsewhere, current Sussex captain Chiara Green is a former pupil at Cardinal Newman, as is Charlotte Burton, who leads Sussex’s women and girls’ pathway.
The combination of more eyes on the game and more relatable roles models for local girls is a winning one. The result is more people watching women’s cricket, more eagerness to take up the game, and more opportunities to do so.
A game for everyone
And Walker is convinced as the sport grows, we will see more women and girls picking up a bat or ball and falling in love with cricket.
“There are so many different entry points to cricket now,” said Walker. “There will be a way into the game for everyone – regardless of age.
“I’d recommend it to anyone. It is such a unique sport. I call it a team sport, played by individuals. So, if you’re a young girl who is very determined, really enjoys working hard to develop a specific skill, you can do that and still be part of a team.
“To be around a group of like-minded people and share in each other’s successes is awesome.
“But you also develop so many important skills, like resilience. In football, if you miss a tackle, you can get up, run back and still win the ball back. In cricket, you can get one ball and you’re out. You need resilience for that.
“The teamwork, the leadership skills, these are all skills we need outside of sport.
“Not everyone is going to play for England, but cricket is not only fun and it teaches you things which will set you up for life.
“And, you know, we don’t play when it’s raining, which is always a bonus.”
So, does Walker have a message for women and girls thinking of trying cricket?
“Cricket provides so much more than runs, wickets and wins,” she said. “Pick up a bat or ball, give it a go and see where this wonderful sport can take you.”
For more information on how women and girls can get involved in cricket in Brighton & Hove, visit: WOMEN AND GIRLS | Sussex Cricket.
