Pioneering sports leader Beth Barrett-Wild has been awarded an honorary degree by the University of Essex just days after helping deliver the biggest ICC Women\u2019s T20 World Cup in history.<\/p>\n
The honour marks a full-circle moment for Beth, who grew up playing hockey and running cross-country events at the University of Essex before going on to become one of the driving forces behind the transformation of women\u2019s cricket.<\/p>\n
Beth was the first female member of the Essex County Age Group pathway and has gone on to help build a new future for women\u2019s cricket, paving the way for future generations through leadership roles at the England and Wales Cricket Board.<\/p>\n
The honour comes as the University of Essex continues to strengthen its commitment to women\u2019s sport through its Essex Rebels basketball and volleyball programmes and its partnership with Essex County Cricket, which launched the county\u2019s first professional women\u2019s team.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on her journey, Kelvedon resident Beth said: \u201cTo be recognised by a university with such a strong commitment to opportunity, inclusion and excellence \u2013 particularly in the growth and transformation of women’s sport \u2013 is something I will treasure forever.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was eight years old, becoming a professional cricketer simply wasn’t a realistic dream for a little girl. Today, it is.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot because one person changed the game, but because thousands of people, over many years, chose to challenge what was accepted, open doors that had been closed, and create opportunities that hadn’t existed before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Passionate about sport from an early age, with under-21 international honours in hockey and cricket, as Director of Women\u2019s Professional Game at the England & Wales Cricket Board Beth is responsible for the strategic direction of women\u2019s professional cricket and driving the long-term growth of the game on and off the field.<\/p>\n
Most recently, she helped oversee the delivery of the ICC Women\u2019s T20 World Cup 2026, which became the biggest tournament in its history, attracting 245,815 fans across 25 match days and breaking the previous attendance record by more than 100,000.<\/p>\n
Since joining the ECB in 2013, Beth has played a leading role in raising the profile of women\u2019s cricket, including helping launch The Hundred, delivering the 2017 ICC Women\u2019s Cricket World Cup and leading the audience strategy for the record-breaking 2023 Women\u2019s Ashes series.<\/p>\n
Her work has helped attract more than one million fans to women\u2019s matches in The Hundred and earned her recognition as one of the BBC Radio 4 Woman\u2019s Hour Power List’s top 10 women in sport in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pioneering sports leader Beth Barrett-Wild has been awarded an honorary degree by the University of Essex just days…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":812559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-812558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}