The recent death of Rachael Heyhoe Flint, the trailblazing England captain who dedicated her life to the advancement of cricket for women, allows a moment to reflect on her contribution to the game and more critically on how far the game has come along the path of equality.

Her first forays into cricket took place when the more commonly held view of cricket for women was epitomised in the following quote, attributed to Sir Len Hutton: “Absurd, just like a man trying to knit”.

Despite this, my earliest memories of the game centred around crackly test match broadcasts from Australia on freezing mornings in the dead of winter, because my mother was an avid listener and would get up at 3am and insist on absolute silence at the breakfast table. Her passion for the game infected me.

Mum’s love of cricket, as it transpired, developed from her schooldays during the 1950s at Wolverhampton High School for Girls, where Heyhoe Flint was a classmate and her cricket and hockey captain. They also followed Billy Wright and their favourite football team, Wolves – so after Saturday morning hockey games they stood on the Molineux terraces together, where my mum took me to my first football game.

Not just about equality

When it comes to sex equality, two broad models of equality operate to support the advancement of sport for women. The first is a sex-blind approach, where no consideration of sex is made. Participation is based purely on the basis of interest and access, and equality of opportunity prevails. This model exists at grassroots level for young children in the UK, who play together in mixed teams.

Then there is the apartheid model, which aims for a “separate but equal” model for sport, where accommodations are made on the basis of sex. The critical issue here is whether the differences between people that affect the prospects of equality need to be addressed – not just for those who are disadvantaged, but for the benefit of all.

So while the gap between the performance potential of male and female cricket players has narrowed, biology – players’ physiques – remains a determinant of different sporting potential and there is justification for putting significant investment into women’s cricket. The bottom line always is how much and where should those resources go?

Winds of change?

Heyhoe Flint’s contribution to cricket is best seen in the context of the way sport – and cricket – changed over the past 40 years. Here the oft-used and overly absolute binary notions about judging change: “good and bad, right and wrong” are unhelpful and might be better replaced by ideas that instead emphasise progress, improvement and development.

Heyhoe-Flint’s own experiences are instructive in that regard. Her first application to become a member of the MCC, the game’s most important club, was rejected by MCC members in 1991. She was finally admitted eight years later in 1999. The core conservative arguments that women should be members of the MCC didn’t change much during that time, but the members’ views eventually did. For some, the pace of change at a moment in time will be too slow, for some too fast. It is perhaps by recognising this that Heyhoe Flint was able to persevere with good grace.

English cricketer Rachael Heyhoe Flint (Getty)

Changes and progress in the game are also reflected in the numbers. Heyhoe Flint had an England career that spanned 19 years (1960-1979), during which time she was awarded 22 test caps and played 23 one-day international matches. The recently retired England captain, Charlotte Edwards likewise had a 19-year England career between (1996-2015) and achieved 23 test caps, but – as a sign of the times – she played 171 one-day international matches and 95 T20s.

More recent changes include introducing central England contracts for women and professional T20 leagues in England and Australia and rapid advances in the women’s game. Further progress will occur with greater media coverage and more professional contracts – it’s a matter of when and to what extent. At this stage, the barriers to women in cricket are less about being a woman and more about cricket itself.

Great Sporting Moments: Cricket Show all 10 1 /10 Great Sporting Moments: Cricket Great Sporting Moments: Cricket GETTY IMAGES Great Sporting Moments: Cricket 1.Bradman's final duck, The Oval, 14 August 1948

Cheered to the crease by fans and players for his final Test innings, Donald Bradman needed only four more runs for an average of 100. Facing leg-spinner Eric Hollies, Bradman blocked his first ball but was bowled by his second; one of only 44 Test wickets in Hollies's career. Bradman slowly returned to the pavilion - still the greatest, but bowing out on an almost tragic note. GETTY IMAGES Great Sporting Moments: Cricket 2. Jim Laker takes 19 wickets in one test, Old Trafford, 31 July 1956

Another shot at statistical perfection that fell just short. After England had scored 459, Laker took 9-37 as the Australians were bowled out for 84; then, as the tourists followed on, Laker outdid himself, taking 10-53 on a dramatic final evening. England won by an innings and 170 runs, while Laker's off-breaks had earned him the miraculous match figures of 19-90. GETTY IMAGES Great Sporting Moments: Cricket 3. Viv Richards mauls England, The Oval, 13 August, 1976

Before the series, England captain Tony Greig spoke of his intention to make the West Indies 'grovel'. But it was the hosts who were humiliated by the touring side. Viv Richards hit 232 in the drawn first Test, while the West Indies won the third and fourth to take the series. But at the Oval Richards hit an unforgettable 291, having been 200 not out at stumps on day one. He scored 38 fours, induced several pitch invasions, and looked well set to break Gary Sobers's Test record of 365 before he was bowled by Greig. GETTY IMAGES Great Sporting Moments: Cricket 4. Shane Warne's 'Ball of the century', Old Trafford, 4 June, 1993

Few people in England knew anything about Shane Warne when he came in to begin his first over on the second day of the First Test in the 1993 Ashes series. His first ball drifted well outside Mike Gatting's leg stump, then turned so sharply that it missed both bat and pad to clip the bail on the off side. Gatting took some time to walk, being unable to believe his eyes. A star had been born, and a renaissance in spin bowling had been set in motion. GETTY IMAGES Great Sporting Moments: Cricket 5. Brian Lara scores 400 not out, Antigua, 12 April, 2004

Having allowed Matthew Hayden to hold the Test score record for six months, Brian Lara seized it back with a monumental innings at Antigua Recreation Ground in St. John's. It was in the same stadium that he had claimed the record in 10 years earlier (with an innnings of 375) and against the same opponents - England. Meanwhile, his wider first class record - 501 not out - remained intact. GETTY IMAGES Great Sporting Moments: Cricket 6. England win the second Ashes test , Edgbaston, 7 august, 2005

A Test match of unparalleled tension, culminating in an impossibly dramatic finale. When Brett Lee hit Steve Harmison through the offside two balls before the tenth wicket fell he almost won the Test for the Australians. At two-nil down England would have needed three straight wins to regain the Ashes. But the ball was cut off, Lee took only a single and Kasprowicz was left on strike, needing three runs. He gloved Harmison to Jones, and England were level. Amid the celebrations, Andrew Flintoff found the time to console brett Lee GETTY IMAGES Great Sporting Moments: Cricket 7. Colin Cowdrey saves England with a broken arm, Lord's, 25 June, 1963

In a tightly contested Lord's test, England began the final over with numbers 10 and 11 at the crease. Then Len Shackleton was run out, with two balls remaining. Out came Cowdrey, who had retired hurt earlier after having his arm broken by a ball from Wes Hall - and the draw was saved. GETTY IMAGES Great Sporting Moments: Cricket 8. Sobers hits six sixes in an over swansea, 31 August, 1968

The bowler was Glamorgan's Malcolm Nash. The batsman was Nottinghamshire's Gary Sobers, arguably the greatest all-rounder of all time. Sobers hit the first five balls of Nash's over for clean sixes; the sixth was caught on the boundary but carried over - making the first class game's first ever perfect 36. GETTY IMAGES Great Sporting Moments: Cricket 9. Mike Atherton v Allan Donald, Trent Bridge, 26 July, 1998

With the Fourth Test of South Africa's 1998 tour closely balanced, Donald, one of the great fast bowlers, unleashed a spell of terrifying ferocity. Atherton, struggling to see the ball in the final session of play, was none the less immovable - even when Donald thought he had edged a catch behind. Donald responded with a combination of four-letter abuse and terrifying bouncers, but Atherton survived until the close, and by the time Donald had him caught at square leg the next morning, the moment had been lost. England won by eight wickets. GETTY IMAGES

Oasis of equality

Heyhoe Flint, through those formative sporting experiences she shared with my mother in an all-girls school, found her reference point for the affirmation of equality. The social and cultural capital of sport that emerged was nurtured within its own oasis, oblivious to what boys – or the world beyond the school – thought about cricket, hockey and sport more widely. Her life subsequently became one of insisting that such possibilities should also be realised in the adult world of cricket.

However, in this adult world of cricket, inequalities go beyond sex. Interesting here are the differences between the men’s and women’s professional games. In 2015, about 75% of the centrally contracted male players were from independent schools and 25% from state school backgrounds. Curiously, for the women’s game, the figures are closer to 25% independent school and 75% state educated. This is against a backdrop where just 7% of the population are from public schools.

English cricketers Rachael Heyhoe Flint (batting), Edna Barker, left, and Audrey Disbury practising on Perth beach during their tour of Australia (Getty)

Similar inequalities exist in cricket with regards to race and ethnicity – and also more recently with regards to age. It is well recognised by cricket leaders that grassroots cricket is a “greying” sport, where a combination of traditional outlook and the length and format of the game mean that it is often off-putting to younger generations.

But it seems that though solutions towards greater equality for women – through the efforts of Heyhoe Flint – are hugely significant, beyond sex equality, cricket will need to do a lot more to be relevant for more diverse and dynamic generations in future.