Lord’s bats off critics to name gate after female pioneer
THE MCC will name a gate at Lord’s after Rachael Heyhoe Flint, the women’s cricket pioneer, risking criticism from members who disapproved of the idea as “gesture politics”.
Heyhoe Flint, a former England captain, was a seminal figure who successfully pushed in 1998 for women to be permitted to hold MCC membership. She was also the first woman to join the MCC committee in 2004.
Since 2010 a portrait of Heyhoe Flint has hung in the Pavilion but the recommendation to permanently commemorate her at the “Home of Cricket” has now been approved by the committee.
It comes after incoming president Claire Connor, the first woman to hold the position in the club’s 234-year history, voiced her desire in May to install a permanent monument for Heyhoe Flint, who died four years ago aged 77.
But there was controversy after reports of internal revolt from a handful of MCC members who opposed the move, prompting uproar from within cricket, including England captain Heather Knight who implored the MCC to “move with the times”.
Despite the reported opposition, the North Gate will be renamed the Heyhoe Flint Gate next summer with a memorial feature also set to be unveiled. It puts Heyhoe Flint on a par with WG Grace, widely considered the “father of cricket” and who has a south-facing gate at Lord’s named in his memory as the only two players honoured at Lord’s.
Heyhoe Flint’s son, Ben, said it was the “honour of all honours” to mark his mother’s lasting impact in this way.
“It’s the home of cricket, you couldn’t do much better,” he said.
“Mum would be very modest, she would probably be saying ‘Shouldn’t it be a little flowerbed or something?’
“But Lord’s was a place she put her heart and soul into, whether MCC or ECB Committee work, and I don’t know if people know this but some of her ashes are scattered there on the outfield. She really is there.
“There’s lovely symmetry that you’ve got WG Grace on one end of the grounds and Mum on the other end.
“The boys and girls are equally represented again, so what better symbolism could there be?”