Why Women’s World Cup Cricket is the bargain of the year

July 12, 2024

Last Sunday I paid £10 to watch the England Women’s Cricket team play Australia in the World Cup - that’s £10 for an adult ticket (£5 /£2 for concessions) to watch our national side battle it out against one of the best teams in the world. It was an absolute bargain that I’d encourage everyone to take advantage of at the remaining games.

As it happened, it turned out to be more of a bargain than anyone could have expected - the match was a thriller, with England winning by just three runs. It was great sport that due to the ticket price, was experienced by everyone from die-hard fans to families with young children and large groups of teenage girls. And, because of the low entry cost, the stands were full, which sadly isn’t always the case.

On the same day, the mens team played South Africa in a test match at Lords. The tickets cost between £66 and £132, so I imagine that the crowd demographic was pretty different. This is where I find my viewpoint conflicted, on the one hand, I can’t believe that the women’s game is so very undervalued, but on the other I am delighted that this event was affordable enough for all and felt so accessible. It also meant that any young girls dream of playing for England felt realistic because the whole event felt far less elite - which is a good thing.

The atmosphere was (until the last few overs) a bit like a village fete, with kids play areas, free craft activities, face painting, ice cream vans and even the Women’s Institute choir. Yet if you wanted to focus entirely on the game, you could find a quieter spot at the top of the stands - which we did (much to my super-fan dad’s relief!). The beer flowed, yet there was no drunken or rowdy behavoir, and there was tea for us more sedate fans. The perfect mix, that meant everyone went away happy…unless maybe you were wearing yellow!

It won’t be like this for much longer though, women’s sport is starting to get the recognition it deserves and will therfore be ‘worth’ more. My hope is that during this process we also remember the value and long-term benefits of making sporting events accessible for all.

Get tickets for the remaining matches here: womensworldcup.tickets

Danielle Sellwood
Sportsister
@d_sellwood

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