Cricket Scotland: How women’s team have gone from team of the year to no fixtures

Scotland women’s cricket team were riding a high in December 2024. Just one month after their first appearance at a World Cup, they had been named as their nation’s team of the year.

Less than six months on, they have no fixtures scheduled.

Not one in the diary. In fact, they have not played at home since 2023.

“From a funding perspective, cricket costs so much to run. Our resources are extremely sparse – we’re almost running on fumes to try and have our women’s programme exist,” says director of performance Steve Snell.

“To host a series we’re looking at, give or take, between £75,000 and £100,000 and with very little kickback in terms of getting any money back in from that. If we do that three or four times a year against different teams, it gets expensive very quickly.”

The women’s game for associate countries, unlike Full Member nations like England, does not have a mandated Future Tours Programme that dictates when fixtures need to happen.

With teams having to organise things themselves, even if there is willing from touring countries, such as Pakistan, the prohibitive costs often make it impossible.

And for players such as wicketkeeper Sarah Bryce, the situation is a painful one: “Teams are wanting to play us now, which is really exciting, but we’re not able to.

“It’s just really frustrating because it’s difficult to know how we keep pushing forward as a team when we don’t have those opportunities to develop.”

“We feel pretty helpless. There’s not really much we can do about the situation if we don’t get the financial support that I think we deserve at this point,” agrees bowler Abtaha Maqsood.

Cricket Scotland receives approximately £1.3m per year as part of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) revenue share to fund all their programmes, men’s and women’s.

The board has reportedly never made a profit.

Compare this with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), which receives in excess of £30m from the ICC and has lucrative series for which to sell broadcast rights on an annual basis. The ECB’s latest accounts show a pre-tax profit of £27.9m.

More assistance could be offered from England with regular fixtures, says Snell.

“I don’t think it’s a huge ask for us to have more interaction from a men’s and women’s perspective in terms of England and England A for men’s and women’s teams.”