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The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) on Wednesday announced changes in the Laws of Cricket. To promote gender equality, the club has decided to use the gender-neutral terms “batter” and “batters”, rather than “batsman” or “batsmen”.
The changes are effective immediately and updates have been made to the Laws of Cricket at the Lord’s official website as well. “The move to ‘batter’ is a natural progression, aligning with the terms of bowlers and fielders that already sit within the Laws,” the statement read on the website.
Notably, in 2017, it was agreed, that the terminology would remain as ‘batsman’ and ‘batsmen’ within the Laws of the game.
“Use of the term “batter” is a natural evolution in our shared cricketing language and the terminology has already been adopted by many of those involved in the sport. It is the right time for this adjustment to be recognised formally and we are delighted, as the Guardians of the Laws, to announce these changes today,” Jamie Cox, Assistant Secretary (Cricket and Operations) at MCC said.
Women's cricket has seen a big growth in the last few years and all the governing bodies along with the ICC are making sure that the sport gets accessible to all. The T20 World Cup final between India and Australia saw a record crowd at the stadium and recently, Lord’s broke the record for a The Hundred women’s match as 17,116 watched Oval Invincibles defeat Southern Brave.