The female engagement initiative is a project from Northern Districts Cricket, with support of Tu Manawa Active Aotearoa, which aims to increase awareness and access to cricket for women and girls in the Waikato. The project includes a range of programmes and leagues, designed by females, for females, to encourage more women and girls to play cricket and feel welcome and included in the sport. The project covers a significant range of ages, from the year 3-5 girls softball league, through to the adults Backyard Smash Series.
It is widely acknowledged in the Sport and recreation sector that Women and Girls participation is an area that demands specific focus, with opportunities developed to suit the needs of this group. These needs include an environment where girls and women feel safe and comfortable participating and have a sense of belonging within the cricket community. This means creating an environment that is non-threatening and where the focus is on great experiences rather than competition and winning. For cricket, this includes using a softer ball, having female-only and addressing the frequently expressed dislike of playing in a white uniform. With only 10% of cricket clubs across New Zealand offering female cricket, it is clear that there has been a significant part of the population excluded from cricket opportunities until now. In the 2021/22 season, females made up 5.5% of the team-based playing population and 30% of the programme participation through SuperSmash Hubs. This significant gender imbalance comprehensively demonstrated the need to develop opportunities that met the wants and needs of females in the Waikato. Significant participant feedback has been revieced over the last few seasons, with young girls not wanting to play Friday night cricket because ‘the boys kept beating me to the ball and I didn’t get to do it’, and many of our senior women making the trip up to Auckland every weekend to play with other women, rather than playing in the men’s leagues here in Waikato.
The female engagement initiative has been developed to address some of the aforementioned needs and create a positive and inclusive space for females to engage with cricket. A number of offerings have been developed as part of this, including a year 3-6 girls softball league, year 5-8 girls SuperSmash Hubs, Girls-only SuperSmash Festivals, Backyard Smash, the BackyardSmash Series and a competitive women’s hardball league. Each of these offerings have been developed to ensure all women and girls have an opportunity to play in a competition or programme that suits them and enables them to participate. By providing female-only offerings, it specifically calls out women and girls and tells them ‘this space is for you and this sport is for you’, something which has been previously missing within cricket. These new offerings join the existing junior girls hardball and secondary girls leagues, to create a complete player journey for females, with entry points and progression opportunities at each age from year three into adulthood. Each of these offerings focus on ensuring barriers such as time, environment and awareness are removed, with none of the offerings requiring white pants to be worn, a focus on aligning with existing leagues and programmes to remove stress on families with multiple children playing, and providing a short, 4-week, low commitment offering for women who want to try something new, get back into the sport, or just do something for themselves, but don’t have lots of time to commit to it.
Each of the aforementioned offerings, aim to remove the barriers present in female involvement in sport, particularly cricket. The girls softball league aligns with the Friday night boys/mixed softball leagues, being played at the same venues and same times to remove any barriers of having multiple children from the same family playing. By providing a separate competition for the girls, it also enables them to claim the space as their own and play with a style that suit them. The SuperSmash Hubs provide an entry level, game-based skills programme to allow girls to give the game a go and develop some skills before joining a team. This supports the removal of fear of failure and self-consciousness that often arises when trying something new, without having experience or skills. SuperSmash Festivals bring girls from all over the Waikato together for a day of social cricket games, enabling them to connect with others and be aware that they are part of something bigger. These festivals have a focus on the overall experience and encourage camaraderie and giving things a try. Backyard Smash was developed in partnership with This is Me in the previous season, as a one-night social event for women of all experience levels to participate in the game that many of their children play, as a chance to connect with friends through physical activity. In the last year, this has been further extended to also include a 4 week social women’s league: Backyard Smash Series.
Feedback from individual participants, schools, clubs and teams have all highlighted the value of this project in opening the door for females to participate in the sport. Already in the first year, the project saw the percentage of female participants in teams rise to 9% across the Waikato (not including any females playing in mixed teams), and SuperSmash Hub participants were 38%??? Female. Within this, the project saw 5 women’s teams participating for the first time and over 200 girls participating at the girls SuperSmash Festival in Ngatea. In addition to this, nearly all Friday night softball teams had at least 1 girl in their team. The key change seen from this project though is in the shifting attitude and perception towards females in cricket, with girls seeing cricket as a genuine sporting opportunity for them and clubs and schools being increasingly open to establishing female-only teams. For the upcoming season, there are already 4 registered teams in the women’s competitive league and 5 teams in the women’s social league, a collective increase of 4 teams from the previous season. The establishment of the girls-only junior softball grade has seen clubs working to call out specifically to girls, and support has been offered in the form of webinars and workshops to any clubs and schools wanting to develop the female game and be more inclusive of females.
The key demonstration for women and girls feeling included and involved is shown in how the programmes grow and participants return for more. Return participation is the best feedback we could receive for these initiatives. All teams involved in last season’s Backyard Smash Series have returned for a second season, with word spreading resulting in some great growth. Similarly, the Ngatea Girls SuperSmash Festival is returning in late November, with many participants and schools returning from last season’s event. Overall, as mentioned above, feedback has demonstrated that this project has created a positive and inclusive space for females to engage with cricket and to partake in the game in a way that suits them. Colloquial feedback has also demonstrated the effectiveness of this project, with one girl sharing after a girls-only hub; “that was so fun! I can’t wait to bring my friend next week!”
