by In 1998, the last year of Norma Izard’s five years at the helm of the English Women’s Cricket Association (WCA), she made a decision that would change the course of the sport’s history. “The Australians kept saying ‘why don’t we have a trophy when we play England?’ But they didn’t do anything about it,” she would say in an interview in 2017. “So, I thought, well, I’ll do it there. I was the president, so nobody could stop me!”
Inspired by the urn of men’s ashes, she asked a friend, woodcarver Brian Hodges, to sculpt a hollow wooden cricket ball. Then, on 20 July, she gathered the England and Australia women’s cricket teams at Lord’s, asked them to sign a miniature bat, borrow a wok from the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) kitchens, burn the bat in it, and “ashes” in the wooden ball.
It was a distinctly unglamorous event; however, the concept of the “Women’s Ashes” captured the public imagination so vividly that 25 years later, in the summer of 2023, record crowds would turn out to watch the two teams compete to win Norma’s little wooden ball .
For Norma, who has died aged 90, this will be her last act as WCA president: four months earlier, she presided over the extraordinary general meeting at which WCA members voted to merge with the England and Wales Cricket Board. This meant the end of Norma’s 50-year relationship with the Society, which began in 1948 when she attended a coaching session for schoolgirls in Kent (the first ever held in the county), which lasted for national selector, and that was it. her appointment, in 1984, as England manager.
Women’s cricket was still completely amateur in the 1980s and the role was not unrewarding, but Norma (nicknamed “Storming Norma” by the England players) slowly introduced a more professional attitude, which included a strict 10pm curfew and beer per day in force. limit on trips. In 1988, she persuaded the WCA to appoint Ruth Prideaux as England’s first permanent coach.
It was a masterpiece: Ruth’s radical ideas about sports psychology and fitness, combined with Norma’s quiet efficiency behind the scenes, England overcame their underdog status to win the 1993 World Cup final at Lord’s. The tournament was a fitting swansong for Norma, who remains the longest-serving England cricket team manager, either men’s or women’s.
Born in Beckenham, Norma was the only child of Olive (née Goss) and William Preston. William was a Metropolitan Policeman and a keen sportsman who played football and cricket for Cornwall and the police, and instilled a love of cricket in his daughter from a young age. “By the time I was three I had my own bat,” Norma recalled. “And I would put newspaper around my feet for pads, and play in the garden.”
Originally evacuated to Cornwall during the second world war, Norma was delighted when she joined Beckenham grammar school for girls in 1944 and discovered that it was one of the few girls’ schools in the country that offered cricket. When Norma was selected for Kent Juniors in 1948 while clothing rationing was still in place, her mother, who was a tailor, somehow found a yard of cream flannel to ensure her daughter had the white cricket skirt which was a WCA requirement for all representative cricketers.
By the age of 17, Norma was playing for the Kent senior team and also joined Kent Nomads WCC. She was invited to the England trials ahead of the 1957-58 tour to Australia and New Zealand, but Prideaux brought her into the job in a caretaker role.
Norma trained as a PE teacher at Dartford College between 1951 and 1954, captaining the cricket team and playing in the first team for hockey and lacrosse. Her first teaching post was at Kidbrooke school for girls in Greenwich, London’s first purpose-built comprehensive school. In 1955 she married Peter Izard, an airline executive and RAF reserve officer, whom she met while playing in a mixed hockey match.
She took a break from teaching and cricket in 1960 to raise their two sons, Barrie and Mark, but later captained Kent’s second XI, playing her final match in 1983 at the age of 50. 1981, he became the first female Junior manager. side of England.
She was appointed OBE in 1995 for services to women’s cricket, and in March 1999, after MCC finally voted to admit women, she was one of the first ten women to be admitted to the club as an honorary life member. Peter was a long time member of the MCC; she claimed he never told her to vote or vote in favor of her admission.
In later years, Norma maintained a keen interest in women’s cricket, being a trustee of the Chance to Shine charity. She has visited Australia many times, including in 2008 to present the Women’s Ashes trophy to Charlotte Edwards. She was present at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in March 2020 when the world’s best crowd for a women’s cricket match was achieved – 86,174 spectators.
Peter died in 2011. Barrie and Mark are survived by Norma, and two granddaughters, Caitlin and Rhiannon.
• Norma Jean Izard, cricketer and cricket administrator, born 9 September 1933; he died 30 December 2023
