South Asia Cricket Academy launches women’s programme

The South Asia Cricket Academy will launch its inaugural women’s program for the 2026 season.

The new program is seeking between six and 10 non-professionally contracted South Asian British women, aged over 18, for the fully-funded elite high-performance programme, which will run over the next 12 months.

The pilot was made with support from Take Her Lead, a registered charity founded by former English international broadcaster Isa Guha.

The charity is dedicated to promoting equality and diversity in cricket and increasing the participation of women and girls.

Since its founding in 2022, SACA has helped 18 players of South Asian descent secure professionalism at provincial clubs.

Since its founding, the proportion of professional players of South Asian descent in the county game has risen from four to 13%, while the number of academy players has increased from 18 to 26%.

SACA research indicates that there are currently five South Asian female professional players in the provinces (3.3% of all players), with a further five (7.1%) in their academies.

“Having worked in women’s football as a scout and coach for the past six years, I have seen first-hand how the game has evolved,” said Tom Brown, founder and CEO of SACA.

“We are excited that SACA will take a leading role in helping to develop talented young British Asian women cricketers and help them achieve their ambitions to break into the professional game.

“We are confident that we can very quickly begin to emulate the success that our men’s program has had for so many talented cricketers.”

Guha will chair an advisory group of experts with experience in high-performance environments and a South Asian perspective, which includes England international Lydia Greenway and former players Abtaha Maqsood and Sonia Odedra.

“The inaugural SACA Women’s Program will provide much-needed focus to South Asian women in cricket,” Guha said.

“Our role is to ensure that the environment that is created makes these women feel like they belong in cricket, taking their background and gender into account.

“Our fantastic group of consultants and experts will support their development, ensuring this program is built for success.”