The England and Wales Cricket Board has unveiled 53 purple seats at Edgbaston in Birmingham, putting women’s contributions to cricket in plain view just days before the Icc Women's T20 World Cup starts on Friday.

The seats are part of a wider campaign to recognise the role women have played in the game since 1973 and to show that cricket is not only for those on the pitch. The project is meant to highlight women and girls as players, coaches, volunteers and grounds staff, using one of the country’s biggest venues to send that message at the start of a major tournament.

Among those recognised is Yvonne Tweddle, who volunteers with Kings Bromley Cricket Club near Lichfield. She first got involved in cricket through her family more than a decade ago and later moved from safeguarding work to helping on the ground itself, a path she says left her proud to be part of the group. Tweddle said bringing the women together was a powerful thing to do, and hoped young women and girls coming into the game would see that they can have a go and belong on either side of cricket.

That message lands against a backdrop of growth that still needs active encouragement. Gemma Barton said the women in the project had each helped change the game in different ways, whether by winning the World Cup, changing policy, making cricket more inclusive or getting more girls playing every week at their clubs. Fidelis Navas said participation in Warwickshire had increased significantly in recent years, pointing to a 75% rise in the number of women’s and girls’ fixtures in the county alone.

The timing matters because the unveiling is happening at the point when cricket’s global spotlight is about to move to the women’s tournament, and the ECB is clearly trying to make sure that spotlight reaches the people who keep the game moving away from the headlines. The campaign celebrates inclusion, but it also shows why recognition still has to be earned in public: women’s cricket is growing, yet the sport is still working to make sure that growth is visible, normal and lasting.