Women's cricket: a history of firsts.

The 18th and 19th centuries

The ICC dates women's cricket to 1745, when the first known women's match was played in Surrey. The MCC names it as Bramley against Hambledon, villages near Guildford. The MCC also records a Sussex women's match at the Artillery Ground in 1747 that was abandoned when the crowd invaded, and a match at the Oaks, Surrey, in 1777 involving the Countess of Derby.

The ICC dates the first women's county match to 1811, and the MCC names it as Hampshire against Surrey at Ball's Pond, Middlesex, the first report to name the players. According to the MCC, the White Heather Club, founded in 1887, is the first women's cricket club on record, and the Original English Lady Cricketers, who toured in 1890, were the first group of professional women cricketers. In Australia, the ICC says women's sides began playing in the 1890s; the MCC dates a women's league there to 1894 and the Victoria Women's Cricket Association to 1905.

Governing bodies and the first Tests

The MCC dates the Women's Cricket Association in England to 1926 and the Australian Women's Cricket Association to 1931.

The first women's Test was played at the Exhibition Ground, Brisbane, on 28 to 30 December 1934, Cricket Australia's Andrew Ramsey writes. England, captained by Betty Archdale, beat Australia, captained by Margaret Peden, by nine wickets; England's Myrtle Maclagan took 7 for 10 as Australia were bowled out for 47. England won the second Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground by eight wickets, Maclagan making 119, the first century in a women's Test. The third, at the MCG, was drawn, and England took the series 2-0. Cricket Australia says the English party paid its own way, arrived at Fremantle on 20 November 1934, and that its manager, Betty Green, said there were no Ashes in women's cricket.

The year is recorded differently in one place. The ICC and the MCC give 1934 for the first women's Test. The MCG timeline files the first women's Test at the MCG under 18 to 21 January 1935, which was the third match of the same series, not the first.

The MCC says the first women's Test in England was at the County Ground, Northampton, in 1937, and that in 1958 Betty Wilson became the first woman to score a century and take ten wickets in a Test, and took the first women's Test hat-trick. The ICC and the MCC both date the International Women's Cricket Council to 1958.

The first World Cup, 1973

The ICC calls the 1973 Women's World Cup in England the first Cricket World Cup of any kind, held two years before the first men's tournament. The ICC credits England's captain Rachael Heyhoe Flint with leading it and the businessman Sir Jack Hayward with backing it; it ran under the Women's Cricket Association, with the International Women's Cricket Council overseeing the international game. Seven teams took part: Australia, England, an International XI, Jamaica, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, and Young England.

The ICC's 50th-anniversary release says the tournament began on 20 June 1973 and that England beat Australia by 92 runs in the final at Edgbaston on 28 July 1973, Heyhoe Flint receiving the trophy; Enid Bakewell was the leading run scorer.

Two points the records disagree on

• The end date. The ICC's release of 28 July 2023 says the tournament ran from 20 June to 18 July, yet also places the final on 28 July. Its release of 20 June 2023 gives 28 July 1973 for the final, which this site uses.
• The first match. Sussex Cricket calls England against an International XI at Hove, in June 1973, the first match of the tournament and the first women's one-day international; England won by 135 runs after Bakewell and Lynne Thomas opened with a stand of 246. The ICC says the tournament opened with Jamaica against New Zealand, washed out without a ball bowled, so Hove may have been the first match played to a finish.

One claim sometimes made is not borne out by these sources: women did not play one-day internationals before men. The MCG timeline dates the first official men's one-day international, Australia against England, to 5 January 1971, two years before the 1973 tournament. The firsts women hold are the World Cup and, as below, the Twenty20 international.

Lord's, the MCC and the Laws

The ICC Hall of Fame gives Heyhoe Flint's international career as 1960 to 1982, with a Test best of 179 against Australia at The Oval. The MCC records that a week after that innings, in 1976, the first women's match was played at Lord's, and its women's history lists 1976 as the year England and Australia played the first women's ODI there.

The MCC says its committee discussed admitting women in 1967, and that a membership application from Heyhoe Flint in 1990 helped force the issue. A first vote in February 1998 won a majority but not enough to change the rules; a second vote in September 1998 passed the two-thirds threshold. The day of that second vote is recorded differently: The Cricket Monthly gives 27 September 1998 and The Lawyer reported 28 September, both seen only as search summaries, while the MCC gives only the month. Heyhoe Flint was among the first ten women made Honorary Life Members in 1999, became the first woman on the MCC Committee in 2004, and was made a life peer in 2010.

The Women's Cricket Association was dissolved in 1998, the MCC says, and the ECB took over the women's game. In 2005 the International Women's Cricket Council merged with the ICC. The MCC records Claire Taylor as the first woman named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year, in 2009, and Clare Connor as its first female President, in 2021. The first women's Test at Lord's, England against India, was played in 2026.

The Laws changed too. The MCC's preface says the 2017 Code was the first written in gender-neutral form, and the 2022 edition replaced "batsman" with "batter".

Twenty20, and the World Cups since

The first women's Twenty20 international was England against New Zealand at Hove in August 2004, with Clare Connor captaining England; Wikipedia gives the day as 5 August. Sussex Cricket calls it the first T20 international by either women or men; the first men's T20I followed in February 2005. The margin differs: Sussex says England lost by 10 runs, Wikipedia that New Zealand won by nine runs. The MCC records that the women's Ashes became multi-format in 2013, and that The Hundred launched in 2021.

The editions between 2000 and 2022 are not covered in our history research; recent tournaments are on the Women's ODI World Cup and the Women's T20 World Cup, and the women's game today on women's cricket.