MCC to honour Rachael Heyhoe Flint by naming a Lord's gate after her

One of the pioneers of Women’s cricket, England’s Rachael Heyhoe Flint will be honoured with a gate being named in her name at the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) said. The decision was taken by the MCC on the 45th anniversary of the first-ever Women’s game played at the iconic venue in 1976, where Heyhoe Flint had led England Women against Australia Women. 

As per the announcement, the gates are set to be commissioned and unveiled in the summer of 2022, and will replace the current North Gate by Wellington Road, the most popular entrance to the ground given its proximity to St John's Wood tube station, 

Flint, in whose honour, the regional 50 over women’s tournament has been named in England, died in 2017 aged 77 and played 22 Tests for England between 1960 and 1979. 

As an administrator, Flint was instrumental in hosting the first Women’s Cricket World Cup in 1973, which was hosted even ahead of the Men’s tournament in 1975. In 1998, the first captain to lift the Women’s World Cup also went on to achieve the once improbable task of getting MCC membership for women and in the next year, she became one of the first ten female members to be granted honorary life membership of the club. 

On this memorable occasion, Guy Lavender, Chief Executive and Secretary of MCC said, "Women's access to play and watch cricket at Lord's, and to participate in the game more widely, has come a long way and in commissioning new gates featuring a permanent memorial at Lord's we are recognising Rachael Heyhoe Flint's crucial role in this progression."