How Can Cricket Team Kit Bags Encourage Girls to Participate in Cricket?
While young girls from low-income families can experience financial hurdles to participating in cricket, teams and clubs can help reduce expenses by investing in kit for the whole team.
Whether playing at school or in a community club, it’s a sad reality that young female cricketers often face significant barriers to entry. These barriers include a lack of facilities, long commutes, ill-fitting equipment, and, most importantly, financial hurdles.
One way that cricket teams and coaches can soften this financial blow is by investing in female cricket team kit bags that provide the entire team with the necessary equipment to play without requiring parents to spend large sums on personal kit. This breaks down traditional barriers, helping new players get acquainted with (and fall in love with) the sport, and gets parents on side too.
In this article, we’ll dive into exactly how investing in a female cricket kit can help young girls and their families to participate in cricket, and how something as simple as a shared kit can increase attendance.
Coaches, listen up!
What Are Team Kit Bags In Cricket?
In cricket, team kit bags are large bags, often on wheels, that include essential equipment and gear, usually enough to cover the entire team for matches and practice. They're a convenient option for ensuring that all players have the necessary equipment without purchasing it themselves.
Although the contents of cricket team kit bags may vary depending on the retailer, most offer the standard core equipment, including cricket bats, batting pads, and gloves. While unisex kit bags are common in local community clubs, ill-fitting equipment is often one of the challenges female cricketers experience, so choosing a female team cricket kit bag is paramount.
Investing in a cricket team kit bag is an excellent choice for regional teams and after-school clubs. Every player receives the same high-quality equipment, encouraging young girls to pursue their talents in the sport without pestering parents to purchase individual equipment every season.
Financial Barriers to Cricket
Unfortunately, cricket is not known for its affordability — an issue that frequently prohibits new young players from taking up the sport. In this section, we examine a few of the financial challenges cricket can present to families.
Access to Cricket Coaching
Depending on the area and school, investing in cricket lessons can be a notable expense. While some schools may offer cricket lessons during PE or provide after-school cricket clubs, others tend to bypass the sport for other, cheaper options like football, netball, or rounders.
Community cricket teams must make these sessions cheaper to participate in should they want to see increases in attendance.
Cost of Cricket Equipment
While some teams allow young girls to play cricket in universal sports gear like leggings and T-shirts, other clubs are stricter regarding sportswear and equipment. But as young people grow and their bodies change, this often means expensive purchases every season.
This cost is most pronounced when teams do not offer a kit bag and expect individual players to foot the bill for bats, pads, helmets, and gloves. However, the expense can easily be mitigated by purchasing shared equipment that fits female players and reduces individual equipment costs.
Travel Expenses
Although women's cricket is growing in popularity, some areas often don’t offer cricket clubs and training facilities. Depending on the location, commuting to and from the club may result in significant car or public transportation expenses.
Aside from commuting expenses, the costs of travelling to tournaments or training camps can also add up, including tournament fees, accommodation expenses, and the purchase of new equipment.
How Team Kit Bags Reduce Expenses
Although teenage girls and their families may face several barriers to entry regarding the sport of cricket, clubs and teams can lower expenses by investing in cricket team kit bags.
Purchasing a cricket team kit bag brings several benefits to a club and its players, including lower financial burdens on players and their families, well-fitting and tailored equipment for the players, and the promotion of inclusivity.
To find out more about the cricket team kit bags on offer at NEXX, click here.
FAQs
Is cricket an expensive sport for teenage girls?
Like many sports, cricket can be expensive. Typical expenses include equipment costs, coaching fees, travel expenses, tournament fees, and medical expenses, but costs are mitigated when a club invests in team equipment.
What's the problem with unisex cricket equipment?
Most unisex cricket equipment is tailored to men's physiques, offering baggier gloves, wider batting pads with longer straps, and heavier bats. This often disadvantages female players, who must play with ill-fitting equipment that hampers their performance.
What do female cricket team kit bags usually include?
Depending on the seller and individual team requirements, female cricket team bags usually include protective gear such as batting gloves, pads, and lighter cricket bats tailored to female performance. Find out more here.
