Women’s World Cup: Lynne Thomas and the cricket spirit of 1973
“When people ask me what I’d have been if I’d not been a cricket player, I say… a millionaire,” laughs Lynne Thomas, who 44 years ago helped England to victory in the first ever cricket World Cup.
The women’s game beat the men onto the global crease, with their inaugural World Cup in 1973 coming two years before the first male event.
Not only was batswoman Lynne, now 77, part of that wider trailblazing moment for sport, she played her part on the pitch too, scoring 263 runs in four innings, and making the first World Cup century.
What makes her and the England team’s victory the more remarkable is that they played and promoted the women’s game in the 1960s and 1970s for no financial reward, in fact their love of cricket left them regularly out of pocket.
By way of contrast, when England take to the field in Sunday’s sell-out 2017 final at Lords they will be playing for a cool $660,000 (£512,000). Even the losing team will collect $330,000. It is all part of an ICC pot of $2m prize money this year.
Women’s cricket makes declaration of intent
World Cup prize money ‘will change people’s lives’
Source link
