A Hampshire County Cricket Club official has hailed the impact of the Metro Bank Girls in Cricket Fund, highlighting its importance in helping clubs grow the women’s and girls’ game.
Through their partnership with the England and Wales Cricket Board, The Fund, which was launched in 2024, exists to grow and support the number of coaches of girls’ cricket, creating more inclusive, welcoming environments and role models to nurture a generation of confident girls and women.
In 2026 alone, the Fund delivered 2,000 hours of coach development support within club environments.
Steph Trueman, Hampshire’s development officer, has seen first-hand the importance of The Fund through her involvement with St Cross Symondians Cricket Club, which resides near Winchester, and believes its continued support is vital to the future of the game.
“It’s hugely important,” she explained. “A lot of the issues we have are that clubs don’t have the facilities they need. Having The Fund means they can improve their facilities, have coaches, give coaches access to mentors and support the game in a way that hasn’t happened before. It’s extremely important for growing the game.”
Trueman was speaking at the Utilita Bowl, which was the venue for the Metro Bank Girls in Cricket Fund networking event on 19 September.
The event took place at the same time as the Metro Bank Women’s One Day Cup final took place between Hampshire and The Blaze, in which the latter dramatically won.
Around 100 attendees from cricket clubs across the Hampshire region were involved with the all-day event, one which gave those involved in grassroots cricket the chance to share ideas, make connections and discuss how the sport can continue to grow across the county.
And for Trueman, she hopes to see many more events of a similar nature occur well into the future.
“Keeping it going every year and continuing to push the women’s and girls’ game to become level with the men’s game is vitally important,” she continued.
Not only did the day provide a big networking opportunity, but it also saw the launch of the Evolve pillar, a Take Her Lead workshop, an interactive Creating Belonging workshop and a Q&A from England spinner Sarah Glenn.
Take Her Lead is a charity founded by Isa Guha that has teamed up with Metro Bank and the ECB to help with the delivery of the Metro Bank Girls in Cricket Fund, while the Creating Belonging Course is a free micro-opportunity designed for coaches to create welcoming environments and the Evolve pillar focuses on helping future coaches.
Trueman welcomed the involvement of Take Her Lead as well as the continued support of Metro Bank.
“The Take Her Lead workshop was great because we got different feedback about the struggles in women’s sport, how we can address them and how we can make the game bigger,” she added.
“It’s also incredible that such a big company like Metro Bank has decided that this is what they want to work on. The fact that they’re investing in it just shows that they think it’s important, as well as us.”
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