Female recognition in sport is a work in progress, but momentum is shifting – as Wisden has shown

The announcement of Heather Knight, Natalie Sciver and Anya Shrubsole as three of this year’s Five Wisden Cricketers’ of the Year is a bold and welcome move

In Knight, Sciver and Shrubsole however, alongside the rest of their World-Cup winning teammates, England have a group of female role models now more visible than ever (Getty)

Before this year, 594 cricketers had been named as part of Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year. In a tradition started in 1889 and usually announced in groups of five, only two of those, Claire Taylor in 2009 and Charlotte Edwards in 2014, were women. If women were to indicate the amount of sugar in a product, Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year would have been considered sugar-free under regulatory guidelines.

The announcement of Heather Knight, Natalie Sciver and Anya Shrubsole as three of this year’s Five Cricketers’ of the Year propels the product into a low-sugar classification. In a historical context the numbers are deplorable, laughable even.

Yet this is a moment of celebration. Increasing the number of women by 150 per cent, even outnumbering the men on this occasion, is a bold, and welcome move. Campaigning for equality is a constant balancing act, a combination of battering the door down and condemning past discrimination while applauding development and encouraging, slowly but surely, more of the same. Female recognition in sport is a work in progress, but the momentum is shifting and Wisden’s announcement is another sign of this.

It is a celebration however with a proviso, of what happens next. If 2017 was the year that women’s cricket “smashed boundaries”, 2018 must be the year of consolidation. It must be a year in which administrators, the media, players and fans take the momentum and progress the game, at all levels. So far, so mixed.

“It is disappointing,” remarked Mark Robinson, England Women’s coach, when asked of the lack of television and radio coverage of England’s tour of India, which finishes this week. "Danni Wyatt's innings deserved to be seen by a global audience.” Robinson was referring to Wyatt’s second successive T20I century. She finished the tri-series, against India and Australia, with a strike rate higher than any of England’s batters in the men’s Trans-tasman T20 tri-series.

Yet even in this Robinson sees the positives. "I'm led to believe there are a lot of people back home that are disappointed," he continued, before adding, “How exciting is it that we're at the stage where people are clamouring to watch the tour.” The skill, the demand is there. The infrastructure, the broadcast rights, the marketing, might just take a while to catch up.

In Knight, Sciver and Shrubsole however, alongside the rest of their World-Cup winning teammates, England have a group of female role models now more visible than ever. They are proof that their job, their on-field success and now the recognition of that success is an avenue open to all.

Wisden, like almost every other publication, club and institution, has a lot of time to make up for. Now that it is taking these positive steps, let’s hope that this summer, which will see tours by both South Africa and New Zealand, an expanded franchise tournament in the Kia Super League and the first ever county match to be played at Lord’s, is one of similar progress.