Take Her Lead is a non-profit organisation founded by former England cricketer Isa Guha that works to ensure that cricket is a place where every woman and girl can fulfil her potential and thrive. They work to enable a more inclusive culture across cricket for women and girls by empowering, amplifying and connecting across the game.

What do you love about cricket? What was the most challenging thing when you first started playing cricket? What stops your friends playing cricket?

These were just some of the questions that have been posed over the last year, to young girls who are currently playing cricket – from grassroots to performance pathways, within traditional and non-traditional environments.

What stood out from their answers was the fact that they painted a strikingly similar picture to the experiences that our twenty-something mentors shared about their early years in the game. The challenge of perfecting new skills, the thrill of competition and the lifelong friends met are all reassuringly familiar. But the flip side was less comforting to hear out of these young girls’ mouths. They felt isolated as one of a handful of girls at their club; clothing, equipment and facilities are not designed for them; and that they can be intimidated and undermined when they are the only girl playing with boys – all echoing stories of years gone by.

For those of us who have seen the women and girls cricket explode in popularity over the past few years, especially since that memorable day at Lord’s in 2017 when a new generation of idols were born, we were shocked to discover that some of those taking their first steps in the sport now face the same challenges as their heroes’ generation.

Yet, there is a reassurance that these shared experiences have been overcome by so many, the common thread being that someone had their back when they most needed them. So often these positive role models, whether relatives, teammates or a famous face, have been the reason a young girl continued with their cricketing journey, and is something we want to celebrate.

This is why Take Her Lead are proud to launch ‘Got Your Back’, because we want women and girls to know just how big the global cricket community surrounding them is. ‘Got Your Back’ is our way of saying that you are seen, ensuring every girl knows they’re part of our team, and channelling their voices to change cricket for the better, together.

Here is the video that has now been shown nationally and we hope this will be the start of big cricket things to come for our SMWCA girls.

Congratulations to Hera for being chosen to be part of this amazing campaign and we are delighted that this is the second women and girls national initiative that Hera has represented our school in.

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