Exclusionary power in sports organisations: The merger between the Women’s Cricket Association and the England and Wales Cricket Board

Abstract

This paper contributes to existing literature on gender equity within sporting organisations, focusing on the merger between the Women’s Cricket Association (WCA) and the England and Wales Cricket Board in 1998. At the time of the merger those involved in the WCA debated whether the merger would be positive for the future of the women’s game. In this paper we discuss the impact of the merger on the women’s role in the governance of their sport through the views of 10 women who were involved in playing, administrating, managing or coaching cricket during the time of the merger. The interviewees’ experiences are located within wider debates about power, gender and sport. We specifically draw on the concept of exclusionary power to highlight how gender inequities continue to impact upon the management and organisation of women’s cricket in England. Our participants’ testimonies suggest that since the merger, the game has unquestionably benefited from increased financial support. This has significantly boosted the elite development of the game. However, since the merger the role of women has changed. They now have limited power over the organisation and development of both elite and grassroots levels of play. This paper therefore contributes to existing research on gender relations and sporting organisations, such as the work of Stronach and Adair ((2009) ‘Brave new world’ or ‘sticky wicket’? Women, management and organizational power in Cricket Australia. Sport in Society 12(7): 910–932) and Sibson ((2010) “I Was Banging My Head against a Brick Wall”: Exclusionary power and the gendering of sport organisations. Journal of Sport Management 24: 379–399), by further applying the concept of exclusionary power to understanding gender relations within a UK sports context.

Women’s Experiences in the Mixed Martial Arts: A Quest for Excitement?

“…But as Hargreaves (1997) notes, contestation over women's boxing has unique features. While debates about social respectability and medical harm were mobilized against women's sport participation in general, in sports such as cricket (Velija et al, 2012b; largely middle class) women argued that their participation conformed to dominant social norms of gender propriety, and that their involvement posed no threat to reproductive capacity or male physical superiority. In contrast women have struggled to resist the medical establishment's critique of their involvement in boxing.…”

The limited development of English women’s recreational cricket: a critique of the liberal “absorption” approach to gender equality

“…Although the merger of the WCA and ECB appears to have achieved some financial sustainability for women's elite cricket in England, the allocation of funding at recreational level is not routinely monitored meaning that gendered inequalities in financial terms is often hidden (Velija et al 2014). Such opacity of organisational structures and practices in male dominated sports can be seen as part of the process that allows organisational members to protect their power and limit the capacity to transparently enact change to increase the presence of minorities within sporting cultures (Sequerra, 2014).…”

“…A number of authors have drawn on Rao et al's (1999) concept of exclusionary power (Velija et al 2014;Hoeber, 2007a;Sibson, 2010) to illuminate how gender inequalities are perpetuated by routine organisational practices. Rao et al explain that there are five ways of exercising power within organisations in order to shape its culture and structure in ways that can preserve the status quo.…”

“…In 1998, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the Women's Cricket Association (WCA) amalgamated in a move that it was assumed would protect the financial future of English women's cricket and enhance its development. The merger was presented by the WCA as a positive opportunity that could not be missed (Velija et al 2014), although many members were concerned that the move would lead to a loss of decisionmaking power. The final WCA vote was 97 to 1 in favour, although a significant number 30abstained, indicating their discomfort with the plan (BBC News, 1998, Rumford andWagg, 2017).…”

“…Since the 'absorption' of the WCA into the ECB, elite women's cricket in England appears to have benefitted from a significant growth in investment targeted at the England women's team (Velija et al 2014). In 2014, to support full time professionals in the women's game, 18 female cricketers were given professional 'central' contracts from the ECB (Brenkley, 2014), reflecting its rising profile in England.…”