Ahead of the 2019 cricket season, Warwickshire County Cricket Club is backing a new social media campaign that has been launched to get more county cricket supporters watching the women’s county game.

The campaign will centre around getting supporters to attend a women’s match on one specific “Women’s County Cricket Day”, Bank Holiday Monday 6th May. However, with the Bears playing away to Kent in the Royal London Women’s One-Day County Championship on that day, the club is using the campaign to encourage more supporters to its home games, which are played at the Edgbaston Community Sports Ground on Sundays, and Whitsun Bank Holiday Monday, in May and June.

The aim of the new campaign is to promote women’s county cricket to a wider audience and to encourage cricket lovers across the country to get out and discover a part of the game they may not know much about.

With free entry and all games scheduled on either Sundays or Bank Holiday Mondays, our matches couldn’t be more accessible.

Laura MacLeod

Laura MacLeod, Women & Girls’ Performance Manager at Warwickshire CCC, said: “We’ve seen some excellent growth in the women’s game over the last few years and, whilst there’s still more to do, its fantastic to see clubs and supporters uniting to raise greater awareness of our fixtures.

“With free entry and all games scheduled on either Sundays or Bank Holiday Mondays, our matches couldn’t be more accessible, and we hope that we can encourage more fans down to the Edgbaston Community Sports Ground in 2019 to get behind the Bears.

“The squad have been working incredible hard with our new coaching team over the winter months and they can’t wait to hit the ground running in May.”

The campaign has been launched today on Twitter via a dedicated account (@WomensCricDay), using the hashtag #YourCounty. Cricket fans up and down the country will be encouraged to discover the hidden gem that is women’s county cricket by attending their nearest match on Monday 6th May.

England stars such as Warwickshire’s own Amy Jones, Heather Knight (Berkshire), Katherine Brunt (Yorkshire) and Anya Shrubsole (Somerset) are likely to be in action on the Bank Holiday Monday, using it as a chance to hone their skills ahead of this summer’s Women’s Ashes.

The campaign is being run as a joint venture through the combined efforts of various individual women’s cricket supporters, and the following cricket websites and blogs: www.crickether.com (Twitter – @crickether), www.womens-cricket.blogspot.com (Twitter – @WomensCricBlog) and www.womenscricket.net (Twitter – @DonMiles13).

Former England captain Charlotte Edwards said: “This is a brilliant campaign and something I really support.”

“It’s important we raise awareness of women’s county cricket, and hopefully as a result we’ll get more cricket lovers watching and following their local counties.”

Raf Nicholson, Editor of CRICKETher.com, said: “Women’s county cricket produces the England stars of the future, but often very few people know that these matches are taking place.”

“The men’s county calendar for 2019 has seen a drastic reduction in the amount of weekend cricket available to followers of the game, but women’s county matches will be taking place every Sunday and Bank Holiday during May and June.”

“We want to encourage cricket followers to take this great opportunity to get out there and support their county.”