STRATEGIC PROGRESS UPDATE ON WOMEN’S CRICKET (JUNE 2026)

In participation terms, a primary strategic focus over the next period is to achieve material growth in youth & women’s cricket, both in terms of participating clubs and registered players. We see this as critical to achieving sustainable clubs over the long-term.

A number of specific initiatives have been implemented in the last 12-18 months aimed at supporting the achievement of this objective including a capping of open competition teams per club ground, a rebalancing of the fixture programme with more female cricket at weekends and various pricing incentives around aspirant female participation, places on coaching courses etc.

Whilst this strategic intent and supporting actions are relatively nascent, there are some encouraging indicators that we are moving in the right direction including:

> The introduction of a fifth women’s league in 2026 with a strong social & participatory focus.

> There has been a marked increase in the number of clubs introducing formal female cricket programmes for the first time in 2026 including Tyrrelstown and Athlone (both with 21 registered players), Finglas (19 registered players), Carlow, Halverstown and Castleknock (all with 17 registered players each).

> This expansion in participating clubs comes just a few short years after the (re) establishment of women’s cricket at Terenure and Balbriggan which now have circa 100 female players between them across 5 teams. These are important examples of what can be achieved with the right focus and resourcing from the club leadership including dedicated coaches, proper allocation of training resources, pitch access etc.

> Two further clubs notable of mention in this context are Adamstown and North County - Adamstown Women’s team is now in its 5th year of league participation whilst North County reintroduced women’s cricket last year. Given the relative strength of their Open competition structures, both of these clubs have lots of potential for further expansion on the female side.

> We have already seen a 7% increase in the total number of registered female players for 2026 to-date versus the full-year 2025.

> There are 110 registered female cricketers who are first time registrants with CL in 2026.

This is encouraging progress albeit we are still only in the foot-hills of our ambitions for female club cricket.

Our support and challenge will only continue to increase as part of our efforts to ensure female cricket participation is optimised across our member clubs.

This is especially the case for clubs which have well-established open competition team structures but have not yet mobilised a youth and/or female cricket programme.

Bail ó Dhia ar an obair!