Published in School Sport Magazine, October 9, 2025

Girls' cricket has become the fastest-growing sport in a school in Edinburgh. 
More than 150 girls signed up for cricket clubs offered by St George’s School this summer term as the sport continues to flourish across the UK.

The school enjoyed 31 competitive fixtures, tournaments and festivals from primary 5 up to S6 a large increase since its first cricket club was started in 2018.

Two pupils – 14-year-old Diya Shukla and Adwita Choudhury have been selected for the Scotland U15 squad while Diya has also been selected for the Scotland U17 squad to prepare for the U19 World Cup in 2026.

With cricket enjoying increased attention thanks to Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams series on BBC and the Women’s World Cup under way,

Christine Fourie director of sport at St George’s, said: “Cricket is the fastest growing sport for girls at St George’s, and numbers went through the roof this season.

“It’s a great sport for all abilities to play which is very important to us in terms of our ethos of encouraging girls to develop a love for being physically active from a young age.

“Our programme starts in primary 1 where we have mini cricket bats and big cricket balls for the youngest players. We now have multiple age groups fielding teams.

“It’s been fantastic to see participation numbers grow and we’re now seeing success stories emerge at a competitive level, with girls representing our school internationally.”

The school works in partnership with Cricket Scotland and hosted a schools’ tournament last summer.

There has been huge investment in the school’s cricket facilities in the past two years, including cricket nets and a grass wicket for hard ball fixtures.

The news comes as the school stages a week-long programme of sports, workshops and talks as part of the nationwide Women and Girls in Sport Week, an annual event taking place across Scotland to inspire young women and girls to participate in physical activity and sports.