‘Brave new world’ or ‘sticky wicket’? Women, management and organizational power in Cricket Australia1

Abstract

In 2003 the men's Australian Cricket Board (ACB) and Women's Cricket Australia (WCA) amalgamated to form a gender integrated national body, Cricket Australia. This essay shows that this new organization has served the interests of women well in a number of key areas, including junior development, coaching of talented youth, financial support and scholarships. There have also been modest improvements to the publicity and profile of the women's game. Yet these benefits are, arguably, compromised by an arm's length managerial strategy in which women have little decision-making voice in the state organizations, and are absent from the board of CA itself. The men who run the game of cricket have recourse to substantial amounts of revenue and sponsorship income, which are deployed as they see fit. We argue that if women's cricket is to emerge out of the shadow of the men's game, it is vital to have female representation on the CA board and more generally among state cricket organizations.