'Rachaelising' women's cricket
ESPNcricinfo staff
11-May-2014
Just a few days after the ECB announced the 18 women cricketers to gain full professional contracts, Anna Kessel from the Observer caught up with one of the original trailblazers for the women's game - Rachael Heyhoe Flint. She talks about she persuaded MCC to allow women members, her delighted at where the game is now and the much-discussed topic of women playing in men's teams.
It took nine years to reach a majority vote on the latter, a process that Heyhoe Flint says required diplomacy and wit. "It was no use going in with a strident attitude saying: 'I'm a woman, I demand the right that after 204 years you have a woman member.' I just chat to people, get them on my side, with a light-hearted sense of humour - even though it's a very serious matter you're dealing with - and eventually you have people like Richie Benaud, Colin Cowdrey and Sir Jack Hayward supporting the concept of women members."