Pupils inspired by historic England women cricket Test

A group of young cricketers from Worcester say the historic first women's cricket Test being held at Lord's will help change the perception of it being "a boys sport".

England are taking on India there this weekend - the first time ever that the home of cricket has hosted a women's Test.

It is the second time the English team have made history there in a week. More than 28,000 people filled the ground on Sunday for the Women's T20 World Cup final, which Nat Sciver-Brunt's England lost to Australia.

Elsa, Naomi, Cat and Esme all play in RGS Worcester's cricket team and told the BBC seeing female cricketers on such a big stage is inspiring and can only promote the sport further.

Cat is just finishing Year 12 and plays internationally for Spain. She says she watches how the England team do things carefully and wants to bring leadership skills into her own captaincy at RGS Worcester next year.

She said: "Nat Sciver-Brunt is one of my role models. I've looked up to her ever since I started cricket when I was 10, and seeing her step into the role of England captain has been so inspiring and something that I would definitely want to take on to RGS next season."

Elsa captains the Under-15s team and has been playing cricket at school since she was in year 3. She told the BBC more schools should offer it to girls as a sport.

She said: "I think it builds good teamwork and leadership skills that you can take into life."

15-year-old Naomi thinks it's inspiring to see England's women play on such a big stage and she hopes it will change the perspective of the sport.

"A lot of people say it's mainly a boys sport, and then they see how strong our team is. They are like 'oh my gosh I didn't know that a girl could bowl so fast or a girl could hit that far'," she added.

Esme, who's also 15, is excited to go and watch the Test at Lord's.

She explained: " I think just seeing the way the whole crowd get involved and the way that everyone backs their country... obviously we're used to it in football and men's cricket, but seeing them all with the England flags at the girls cricket is very inspiring."

Adam Witt coaches the girls cricket teams at RGS Worcester and says it is important that they're inclusive.

He said: "We create a very positive culture around our girls teams and we want to encompass everyone, whether they've played cricket before or not, whether they play club cricket outside of school or whether they are brand new to it when coming to RGS Worcester."

He added: "I think what people need to realise is that with men and women's sports, the skills are still the same to execute it. You still have to be willing to put in the time and effort to learn those skills.

"They may be done at different paces in terms of the men's game, they bowl a lot quicker, they hit the ball a lot harder. But we've also seen women are now trying to do that, they're trying to bowl and hit the ball harder than they have done before."

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