"Bangladesh crowd would've got really into it" MCC foundation ambassador Georgie Heath on Women's T20 WC 2024 being shifted to UAE | Exclusive

Georgie Heath serves as an MCC foundation ambassador and works closely at grassroots levels in Women’s cricket in England.

The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 got underway on October 3. A total of 10 nations will battle it out in the United Arab Emirates to stake their claim as the best women’s team in the world in cricket’s shortest format.

The tournament was earlier scheduled to be played in Bangladesh, but was then moved to the Middle East after security concerns in the South Asian country.

Khel Now recently had the privilege of speaking with Georgie Heath, an ambassador for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) foundation, who works closely with grassroots women’s cricket programs in England. Beyond her ambassadorial role, Heath is also a cricket commentator with experience covering games across the globe. In addition to her commentary work, she is a versatile journalist and podcaster.

Her efforts are dedicated to promoting women’s cricket, helping to grow the game from the grassroots level, and amplifying the voices of female cricketers around the world. Heath is currently one of the voices for the ongoing Legends League Cricket.

In an exclusive interview, Georgie Heath spoke about her role as an MCC ambassador, her views on the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024, the development of women’s cricket, the franchise leagues and much more.

Below are the excerpts of the conversation with Georgie Heath:

Q: Describe your role as an MCC foundation ambassador and what has that been like?

A: It’s actually a really exciting prospect because it’s the hub system. So they go around state schools and bring cricket to them and it’s about bringing them through. Then they play all year round and then they play the final at the Lord’s. 

And it’s people who wouldn’t necessarily get that opportunity, which is really exciting. And both the boys and the girls get to play at the Lords’. All their families come on finals day. Actually, the foundation had just had their first international cap awarded, which was Seren Smale, just a couple of weeks ago. She’s the first player to have come through that hub system to actually now get to play for England, which is really exciting.

Q: Your early thoughts on the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024, looking at the squads?

A: It’s going to be a very different World Cup, I think, this one. Obviously, having had to move from Bangladesh to the UAE is quite a big thing in the first place because I think the Bangladesh crowd would have got really into it and it would have been quite an exciting thing, but not going to be as big for crowds as such in the UAE, and it’s quite expensive for people to get out so like if I wanted to have flown out there it would have been a lot to get their stay. 

So it’s flying a little bit under the radar I think at the moment and we just need to sort of ramp that up a bit. But it’s a really exciting season tournament coming along, like Australia I would say is still the favorite but not quite to the extent that they have been coming up for this. Like, most tournaments come in, you just say Australia. 

Like, I would say they’re still the favorites, but actually not just because I’m English, I think England do look very good. Sri Lanka are dark horses. I don’t think it will be New Zealand either as they are going through a bit of a transitional phase and India, I think have to fire all cylinders 100% if they are going to make that final and try to challenge for that trophy.

Q: You have spoken about moving it to the UAE, so do you think the subcontinent teams have an edge because back in Bangladesh, you see the pacers getting some sort of help given the period, which is an early winter over there, but in the UAE you don’t have winters. So do you think that is not helping the non-subcontinent teams with regards to their combinations and stuff?

A:  Well it’s an interesting one because like just take England for example. So that’s the team I’m most familiar with, they’ve undertaken one who is a real out-and-out pacer in Lauren Bell and you’ve got a few others in there who can contribute but they’ve gone really heavy on the spin. Obviously you’ve got the likes of Sophie Ecclestone, Sarah Glenn, Lindsay Smith, and Charlie Dean. So they’ve obviously looked at that and thought we want to go spin heavy, someone like Sophie Ecclestone, she can play anywhere in the world and still be phenomenal, and Lauren Bell has really grown as a pacer. So I think, yes like subcontinent teams traditionally are the more spin-heavy and more experienced in that front. 

But, I think because there are so many opportunities now for girls and women to play all over the world, like playing in the WPL and that kind of stuff, it’s not as much of a shock as it might have been maybe 5-10 years ago. And because it was changed before teams were announced and that kind of thing, I don’t think it’s going to have as much of an impact as perhaps it would have done in the past.

Q: Talking about franchise cricket happening all over the World, we have WPL, we have The Hundred, we have WCPL, the W Big Bash. So, girls are getting more and more game time as compared to what they were getting say five years ago. So do you think it has made women’s cricket a bit faster than what it was in the past?

A: Franchise cricket has changed women’s cricket sort of completely if you ask me. Obviously the WBBL has been around longer than anything at the moment and you can tell that the Australians, because they professionalized so much early from everyone, they’ve been ahead for so much longer, but then bringing in something like the WPL, the Hundred, the WCPL, allowing women so much more increased professionalization in the game, has improved the game and the standard that it’s played at by so much. 

But also, in the domestic game, say in England, there are so many more professional contracts now so you can be a full-time cricketer. And that makes such a change.

Rather than having to go and do the day job, say be a sports teacher at a school and then go and train at night, which is what they had to do in the past, you can be a full-time professional cricketer and it’s about inspiring that next generation while also performing at the top level yourself and that’s what they can do. They don’t have to have this sort of split career where they focus all day on one thing and then are like, right now I’m going to focus on cricket, I’ve got to take time off to go and play in a World Cup. 

They can focus 100% on cricket and I think that’s made such a big difference. I think it is going to impact tournaments for years to come now. Yes, the Australians have been at the top of the world for so long now, but the other teams are catching up because they’re professionalizing the game. Like if you look at England and everything that’s happened, you hear what people say about the Hundred: people hate the Hundred, people, this, that and the other, but you can’t deny what it’s done for the women’s game and the platform that it’s given.

Q: I was coming to the professionalism and full-time job part. So, what do you think now and 10 years before, as you said, players had to worry about their day jobs and whether or not they’ll be able to make a career out of cricket, given the challenges that are, especially in this part of the world. So, what do you think about the professionalism that is coming in the women’s game globally and you see young girls starting from 15, 16, starting their careers, making their international debut? Your thoughts on that? 

A: I think it’s incredible. I mean, sometimes it sounds really weird, but I actually sometimes get really jealous because I wish that opportunity had been there when I was that age because when I was playing at sort of 15, 16, there wasn’t that chance that I could be like, ‘you know what, actually, I’m gonna suck in school, I’m not gonna go to uni, I wanna go play cricket’ because it just wasn’t really viable. But now the opportunity that it is there. 

You can be 15 and you can be on a contract, sort of split with still training during school. Say, take someone like Mahika Gaur, for example. She’s only just finished school, her A-level. She’s been on this semi-contract with England. And then she knows that she can take a year out, which is what she’s doing after school, before uni, to focus fully on cricket.

And she doesn’t have to get up and go and work in a bakery at 5 in the morning to make money to then train during the day. I think it’s just incredible what it means for the youngsters coming through because it is a viable option.

Q: Speaking about equal pay, many many cricket federations all over the world, especially the big ones, have announced an equal pay policy. So what do you make of the equal match fees decision?

A: Yes (that is a good decision), but then there’s still quite a big gulf in the signing fees and the contracts (in franchise leagues). So, you can sort of put this shine over the front of it and say, look, we’re playing equal match fees, but then there is the underlayer of it. And so, it’s very difficult, that one, in the franchise thing. 

In international, I think it’s so important because they’re still doing a job. Your job as a cricketer, you just might be a man. Your job as a full-time cricketer, you might be a woman. I think it is about bringing that.

If you end up working in a company, in a business, in an office, you shouldn’t. It’s so antiquated to point at a man and be like, he’s gonna pay X amount and she’s gonna be paid half of X. Why is that a thing? So I don’t think, just because you’re playing with a bat and a ball instead, it should be no different.

Q: You said Australia being the favorites, who do you think will be the dark horses in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024?

A: I think Sri Lanka really are dark-horses and they’re going to be quite an exciting side to watch. for so long people have just talked about the power of Chamari Athapaththu, but actually they’ve got some really exciting prospects in their side like Harshita Samarawickrama – she’s just been the ICC player of the month and I’ve just watched her play in the series against Ireland as well and she is phenomenal; so if she can fire out there. So Sri Lanka are one to keep an eye on.

Q: You are an ambassador to MCC. Now we see cricket going into the Olympics in the 2028 LA Olympics. So England for example have to play together with the Scotland team. So as an MCC ambassador, what do you make of it?

A: I mean, I was thrilled that cricket is coming back to the Olympics. Yeah, it’s been only once before. It was a very strange tournament the last time it happened. But I think it’s really exciting. Obviously, we saw it in the Commonwealth Games as well. 

But this time, there will be Great Britain, so you can have the English players alongside Welsh and Scottish players. So it will be an interesting concept. I love it as an idea. I think it’s amazing because you know, we’ve all just had the Olympics and you just get such Olympic fever, I found myself watching things that I had never watched before.

I’ve never watched climbing before and I was sitting there eating my breakfast mesmerized and I think that is what the Olympics does. So the more eyes you can get on cricket, I think that’s very exciting, it’s a really exciting time for the growth of the game.

Q: What do you think about the rivalry between England and Scotland, and then you’ll have to turn as one in the Olympics because I watch a lot of football and you see rivalries, unpleasant words being spoken to one another?

A: Oh no, I love it. I think it’s very exciting and I think when it comes to the Olympics, you sort of, those rivalries go out the window. You can be rivals when it’s like the Commonwealth Games and when it’s other things, but I think when they come together as one under the British flag rather than the two separate ones, I think they’ll gel pretty well and it’ll be really exciting.

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