'We're an industry on our knees' - Trailblazing groundswoman warns of 'dreadful' industry downward spiral

When she began working in the UK as a ground staff member at Gloucestershire in 2022, having moved halfway across the world from New Zealand, she was the first woman to do so. For a while, she was the only female ground staff member at an international venue across England and Wales. Last month, she led a historic all-female grounds team for a Women’s Ashes game at Edgbaston. Just two weeks ago, Lay and fellow groundswoman Emma Lynch were involved in another first, when the Armed Forces T20 Day and the MCC Women’s Day were both played on the first-ever Lord’s pitch prepared solely by women.

These firsts have been a long time coming. Aside from her trailblazing feats for female ground staff, Lay is at pains to highlight the overarching recruitment problem the industry is facing, which inspiring more women is only one solution to.

“We’re an industry on our knees,” Lay tells Wisden.com. “It’s in a really bad state, and there are not enough people coming in.

“There are international cricket grounds in the country recruiting ground staff from supermarkets. That’s crazy because it's such a good job.”

‘Investment in outfields would be a game-changer’

After a couple of years at Gloucestershire, Lay is now working her dream job as a full-time ground staff member at Lord’s, another first for women in the industry. Along with the lack of new faces coming through into the industry, and its male-dominated history, Lay and her colleagues also face a chronic lack of resources. Apart from Lord’s, where there’s a nine-member strong ground staff team to prepare pitches for international and domestic games, other venues are not so fortunate. As ever, the issue comes down to funding.

“We’re so lucky at Lord’s; any kit we want, we can get,” Lay says. “Cricket as a whole is dreadful.”

“At Lord’s, it's amazing because as soon as it stops raining, we can get the pitch ready in an hour. On other grounds, it's washed out for 4-5 days. But that’s a fixable problem. You do have to throw money at it and it's a substantial amount of money. You could have it that all 18 counties have grounds that drain as well as Lord’s but it's a money problem. That would never happen in football.”

Lay explains that extensive equipment and technology are needed to prepare the most ideal conditions. At a time when most departments within cricket are asking for more money, the ground staff might have to wait longer for better quality and quantity of resources. However, Lay feels that even simple changes, like better drainage facilities and separate net areas on grounds could go a long way to help the situation.

“If counties could invest in their outfields, that would be a game-changer,” Lay says. “Also, at a few grounds, there are specific separate net areas for players, which is helpful for us, as when the players are training we can still work on the pitch. At a ground like Bristol, everything is done on the main square. So as soon as there’s a game on, or training, we can’t do a lot, which is not the best use of time or resources.”

That’s all the more important in the UK, where, unlike most other major cricket-playing nations, the constant threat of rain during the season is probably the biggest challenge for the ground staff.

“Other grounds (in other countries) also don’t spend heaps of money on it [drainage facilities], but they don’t need to. Whereas in the UK, the weather is a real problem,” Lay explains.

“Because of the weather, there is no set manual on how to prepare a cricket pitch because you will never prepare two pitches the exact same.”

Constant focus on pitches

The 27-year-old branched out of cricket last year when she worked in the Women’s Super League (WSL) football North London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur at the Emirates Stadium. That experience revealed to her just how many resources including money, football has at its disposal, and the gap that cricket faces despite there being a lot more focus on the pitch in cricket.

“The amount that a pitch gets talked about in a game, in any game, it's not reflected in the support and funding that cricket grounds get from grassroots right up to the top.”

Often, the pitch is quick to face the heat barely minutes into a match, and it’s not the kind of heat it would like.

“Even at Lord’s or Edgbaston, people will think - ‘It's a nice day but why is the pitch doing so much?’ They won’t think that it has been raining and the pitch has been under covers for the past seven days, and how stressful that is to contend with when you know you’re going to get ripped apart on TV,” Lay expresses, hoping those connected with the sport would empathise more with ‘the human behind the pitch.’

Pitch preparation nuances

Lay, who finds pitch preparation similar to her former career in crop farming, ensures there is variety in her pitch preparation, especially for a women’s game, where she wants to see surfaces on which pace is rewarded more.

“From my observations in the UK, slow bowling gets rewarded a lot,” says Lay. “I want to see some pacers getting wickets, I want to see Lauren Filer getting the best out of her bowling.

“I figured that with the women’s game if I just left a bit more grass on and instead of cutting it so it wouldn’t lose its colour, I just brush it instead, then the theory is that pace will be rewarded better and it will bounce and carry through better. For men, you can afford to leave the grass shorter because they bowl quicker and they have a higher release point. It's all theory now but it should be researched because I think there’s a lot of merit in this.”

‘I want no one to care that a woman has prepared a pitch’

Despite the challenges, Lay observes that interest in ground staff roles is slowly rising and hopes that more awareness about opportunities will bring faster growth in interest. When it comes to having more women in the industry, her goal is to see the exception become the norm. In their most recent series against Pakistan, Jasmine Nicholls became Yorkshire CCC’s first female member of ground staff to have led pitch preparations at Headingley for the England vs Pakistan women’s T20I.

“I think it will become less and less interesting, which is good,” says Lay. “I want no one to care that a woman has prepared a pitch, that’s the ultimate goal. There will be plenty pitches prepared by women.”

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