Lord’s cricket ground is the symbolic ‘Home of Cricket’, yet women and girls continue to be excluded. Women had to wait for 212 years to become members. Despite some progress since then – such as the first woman President of Lord’s - women remain severely underrepresented on the hallowed turf. 

Men have vastly more playing days, formats, levels and fixtures than women. In 2022, over 13 times more days have been reserved for men's only matches (41 days) than for women only matches (3 days). 

Men enjoy more than ten times the number of international playing days as women, who have a solitary one-day match in 2022. There has never been a women’s Test match at Lord’s.

Moreover, Lord’s own Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) goals seem remarkably unambitious: its stated intention for women's internationals, for example, is to bid for just one game per year. Even its symbolic promise to rename the North Gate as the Heyhoe Flint gate has been relegated to renaming the much less prominent East Gate.

Why are Lord’s so reluctant to answer to the goals of gender equality that every major sport is tracking? Wembley, for example, has made itself a showcase of women’s football with crowds of over 80,000 back in 2012, and will feature the Women’s European Championship Final in July 2022 (with all 87,200 tickets already sold).

Even within cricket itself, progress is being seen - for example, the new FairBreak Invitational women’s tournament hosted at Dubai International Stadium, featuring players from 36 countries. But progress is lacking at Lord’s, which remains a bastion of male dominance.

We acknowledge the progress made in cricket to date, but it is nowhere near equality. Those who control heartland facilities such as Lord’s must hold themselves accountable for redressing the historic exclusion of women by creating proactive fixtures lists that give women’s cricket the showcase it deserves.

In particular, we call on the owners of Lord’s (the MCC) to: 

1) Immediately review the 2022 fixtures list and offer any unallocated days to women’s cricket; and commit to achieving an equal gender split, on the number of matches hosted on the main ground, by 2025.

2) Ensure that for all future amateur matches (e.g. Village Cup Final), where a comparable women’s team or fixture exists, the women are also invited to play on the main ground.

3) Transparently report gender and other diversity related statistics in an easily accessible manner (e.g. women’s matches held on main ground, by year; gender breakdown of committees; number of female members, by year etc).

With the 2022 season underway, now is the time to act. Add your signature here to send a strong message to MCC leaders; they must take women cricketers seriously and immediately take action to address stark gender inequalities.