Gibraltar Cricket were delighted to hear recently that their ongoing Girl’s Development program has been recognised by ICC Europe in their annual awards scheme. Women's Cricket has been a core objective of the Gibraltar Cricket Association's (GCA) development program for the last few years. Although there were several adults already interested in playing the game, it was identified that a structure needed to be in place to produce sufficient numbers of keen and enthusiastic younger players to provide the strength in depth required to sustain this area of the game.

In 2010 the Inter-house structure of previous years has been improved further still and the senior school competition has produced an even greater number of participants. As a result, and reflecting the ages of those involved, the GCA and Westside School combined to support the girls through their Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) awards, using cricket to contribute to their eventual grades. At the presentation ceremony last September over 10% of the recipients had registered cricket as part of their qualifying evidence. This proved so successful that Gibraltar were able to send a GCA Girl's Under 15 representative team, consisting of the most able and committed of the Inter-house players, abroad to take part in the Malvern Festival in August.

This tournament saw ECB County Girl's teams from all over the UK in a week long festival that allows competition within a "development" framework. In their first ever games as a team at this level the girls performed above expectations - with solid performances from several of the players and a highlight in the form of Noelle Laguea scoring Gibraltar's maiden competitive half-century in a great display against Gloucestershire.

This has proved to be such a success that the school has agreed to include the game as part of the curriculum for both GCSE and A level P.E. qualifications. This will not only see the players assessed on skill execution and performance but will also encourage overall development and commitment to the game as they will be undertaking coaching and umpiring courses. These skills, in addition to organising festivals and competitions for younger age groups, can all be used as evidence towards exam grades.

The first of the girls to take advantage of this new initiative are already training hard and will take their assessments this academic year. This system, having proved itself in Westside School, will also now be adopted by the junior boy's system. Once again, the female game leads the male here in Gibraltar. This initiative has gone a long way towards changing the way in which schools cricket, both girls and boy's, can contribute to the overall game in this country.