Meet the Sisters Transforming Women's Cricket
Designing cricket kit for girls, Living North catches up with Maiden Cricket founders Honor and Cat Black to learn how the sisters are supporting the next generation of sportswomen
‘Honor and I started playing cricket when Honor was around six and I joined when I was eight,’ says Cat. Given their obvious flair for the game, the pair were surprised at school when all the girls were sent to play rounders instead of cricket like the boys. It was only when they reached county cricket that they were given a chance – and even then the offer was to prove they were good enough for the boys’ team rather than creating a dedicated team for girls. ‘If you were good enough then you could play on the boys’ team and if you weren’t then it was back to either rounders or softball,’ Cat explains.
The sisters’ skills earned them a spot on the team, but the atmosphere was far from welcoming. ‘The environment was awful and it almost made me want to stop playing cricket,’ recalls Cat, who didn’t have her sister to lean on due to their difference in age: ‘I literally had no one.’
For Cat, this culminated in an upsetting event that is all too familiar for teenage girls, but is something the sisters can look back and laugh at now. ‘I had dropped a catch and it was also my time of the month. I ran off the pitch. All the dads were lined up on the field, and I had a male coach,’ she explains. ‘I went home and was like, I want to stop cricket, I’m humiliated – no one understood.’ It was then that the pair decided to tackle the problem of their gendered cricket kit head on, inspired by outfits Honor had seen other schools wearing.
‘I was looking at my friends and what they were wearing at other schools. I really liked the way that it fit them. Cat had had this really traumatic event,’ Honor laughs, with Cat protesting in the background, ‘and I thought that it’s such a valid point. All girls have to wear this white, see-through material that doesn’t even fit. That just to me seemed absolutely stupid. When Cat and I joined our school, we were the only girls playing cricket. When I left there was a whole girls’ cricket team which for four or five years’ growth is insane. Yet they were still having to wear boys’ see-through whites.’
Even kit that was advertised as unisex was still clearly designed with boys in mind, so the pair set about designing their own range instead. ‘We were 16 and 15 [at the time] and had no clue what we were meant to do in terms of starting up a business, but we knew that we wanted to solve the problem. So we researched different types of styles and fit that we liked,’ says Honor. The sisters drew up their own designs and on a family holiday to Portugal were given the opportunity to visit a manufacturing warehouse for themselves. ‘When we got to this factory they had laid out probably around 100 different fabrics on a table. For about three hours Cat and I went through each and every fabric figuring out what we liked and didn’t like about each one,’ she continues.
Their own experience in the sport meant they knew exactly what they needed – something light and breathable, but also thick enough not to be sheer. Even at such an early stage in development, they were also considering the needs of other girls who might benefit from their range. ‘We wanted a stretchy fabric because obviously girls are different sizes and grow differently. We wanted it to be nice and pretty but obviously not tight,’ explains Cat.
The initial core range covered the essentials (T-shirts, trousers and jumpers) and the pair obsessed over the smallest details. ‘Literally every part of Maiden Cricket is tailored for women,’ says Cat, who notes that the trousers alone took nearly a year to create. ‘We did a flat waistband because Honor and I love wearing trousers low, but I know girls who prefer something high-waisted. There’s poppers at the bottom of the trousers because Mum used to spend her Sundays sewing up the bottom of our cricket trousers that were far too long.’ The trousers also come with a slightly thicker protection layer. ‘Just to avoid what happened to you!’ Honor laughs to Cat.
Maiden Cricket has also expanded to team wear and other key pieces of kit. ‘We went into doing gloves, pads and bats, thinking specifically about what would help women when they’re playing,’ says Honor. ‘When we were running between wickets, our pads were knocking together and we weren’t able to run as quickly. Now we’ve made them thinner and lighter and people who’ve actually worn them have said they’re now much quicker between the wickets.’
‘The message of Maiden Cricket now goes beyond a need for kit, and tackles the issue of women becoming side-lined in sports’
Throughout the process, Honor and Cat have leaned on each other to make Maiden Cricket a success. ‘I think if we hadn’t done it together it wouldn’t have worked,’ says Cat, and Honor agrees: ‘For instance, I was quite a keen dancer when I was younger but Cat never danced. If I had recognised something that I really didn’t like, I wouldn’t have had as much of a push to change it because there was just me. I think the fact that both of us had these struggles, and we had friends who were also saying the same stuff to us, that really helped us and I think it’s quite special.’
The sisters, who are still in their teens, have been able to support each other with Maiden Cricket when academic demands have pulled their efforts elsewhere. ‘I had GCSEs last year and no way would I have been able to juggle Maiden and school,’ says Cat. ‘Thank God I had Honor because she did the meetings, and now with A Level year it’s swapped back around.’ The duo also rely on their Dad who makes sure they can hold their own in business negotiations. ‘He takes us through a lot of it so we keep up with it and on top of things,’ says Cat.
Beyond the kit, Cat and Honor have also created an Ambassador Programme to nurture the next generation of cricketers. Rising Stars is targeted towards younger girls who are showing potential and are looking to grow within the game, and Maiden Heroes is aimed at established coaches and players who want to give back and become role models. For Honor and Cat, the programme serves to help girls and also secure the legacy of Maiden Cricket. ‘When these rising stars eventually become amazing cricketers, they will be on the TV or on a podcast one day and get asked where it all started,’ says Honor. ‘I think there’s not as many go-to points for girls who play cricket and are having struggles, particularly if they’re the only girl at their school that plays or if they are having a similar experience to us and are the only girls in a boys’ team. I think it’s really important for them to have people to speak to about their troubles.’
Recent ambassadors from Yorkshire have included mother-daughter duo Tessa and Jocelyn Thomas from Ayton Cricket Club, and Tanisha Jain, an all-rounder with more than a decade under her belt.
The message of Maiden Cricket now goes beyond a need for kit, and tackles the issue of women becoming side-lined in sports. When we ask them about the future, the pair are confident, pointing to the growing rise in popularity of women’s football and women’s rugby. ‘I just want Maiden to be in every school and in every club,’ says Cat, who tells us that the support has been overwhelming, which bodes well for the future. ‘I think that that really shows that people are on board with cricket changing.’
