Alex Hepburn was jailed for five years earlier this year for rape - PA

The England men and women’s teams have become the first to be given sexual consent education classes by the Professional Cricketers’ Association.

The classes have also been delivered to all 18 first-class county squads and the women’s Kia Super League teams in a massive roll out of sexual consent education by the PCA in the wake of the Alex Hepburn rape conviction.

The programme started last year while Hepburn was awaiting trial when the PCA delivered a pilot programme to the England Lions squad. It was deemed a success and has been expanded to all members of the England teams. It finished last week with a session with the England women’s team before they left for Malaysia to play Pakistan.

The sessions were led by Lime Culture, a company that specialises in working with governing bodies, government agencies and police forces in helping them deliver safeguarding regulations and victim care training.

The hour-long sessions saw players divided into groups of 12 and included education on the consent law, how to build relationships and challenge attitudes and behaviour about sexual consent.

The players were also instructed in the law around data on mobile phones and what can be used potentially as evidence in a court case by the police. This was specific to WhatsApp messaging groups where images can be shared and circulated around a large number of people with images sent without consent. The evidence at the Hepburn trial included lewd and derogatory language about women that were shared among the players.

The sessions also reinforced the role senior players in dressing rooms can play in monitoring the behaviour of younger team mates and challenging anything they believe to be unacceptable.

“If you see something going on that potentially has consequences, I think as a senior player in the group that I would certainly be willing to confront that whatever it was at the time but I need to know the information before I do that, and now I do,” said Eoin Morgan, the England one-day captain.

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The courses were made possible by a boost in funding from the England & Wales Cricket Board which is aware of the reputational damage that can be caused by players misbehaving and the new level of responsibility that falls on governing bodies in the wake of the Me Too movement to educate its sportsmen and women.

“These players operate at the pinnacle of our sport and are watched by millions of people week in, week out. It is therefore crucial that they have the required knowledge to continue to provide a good example for the general public, and young people in particular, in the way they conduct themselves,” said Ian Thomas, the PCA’s director of development and welfare.

Joe Root, the England Test captain, and Morgan have spent two years developing new cultural guidelines for all England players to ensure standards of behaviour on and off the field are maintained. “The more awareness the guys can have from everyone involved right at the top down to the roots of the game is really important and beneficial,” said Root after attending the course.

England's men take part in a session

The PCA hope the courses will make players aware of their own behaviour and that of team-mates and self regulation will become the norm. “It can happen not just yourself but to your team-mates when you are out so it is nice to have a bit more information on how you carry yourself and we learned a lot more than we thought we knew,“ said Jofra Archer.

Hepburn was convicted at a retrial in August and sentenced to five years in prison. His former Worcestershire team-mates, Joe Clarke and Tom Kohler-Cadmore were punished by the England & Wales Cricket Board and dropped from an England Lions tour for their part in the WhatsApp sex competition that emerged during evidence heard at Hepburn’s trial.

Judge Jim Tindal said the sexual conquest game he had set up on WhatsApp was “laddish” and the behaviour “demeaned women.”

Lord’s will host the first final of the Hundred on Saturday Aug 15, which will be a crucial Test of how the MCC buys into the completion. There is enthusiastic support for the new tournament from the executive team at the MCC but it remains to be seen how many members will show up for matches. The MCC plans to throw open the pavilion to the public, including children, for the first time when it hosts games in the Hundred. Hove will host the women’s final on Aug 14.