Norma Izard, who resigned in 1994, became President of the Women’s Cricket Association and promoted a new U17 regional tournament and development programme.
It was also recognized that in order to increase the financial security of the women’s game, administrative authority needs to be transferred from the WCA to the ECB. She led negotiations for more than two years and an agreement was reached in 1998.
Norma Izard, who had long been troubled by the fact that England women did not have a trophy when they played Australia, unlike the men with the urn of ashes, said that as WCA president in 1998, One of her final acts was to offer a trophy.
She commissioned a woodcarver to carve an empty cricket ball, and when England played Australia at Lord’s that summer, both teams signed the miniature bats. Borrowing a wok from the kitchen, she ceremonially lit the vat. The ashes are then placed in a wooden bowl, which is permanently stored in the Lord’s Museum.
Appointed to the Order of the British Empire in 1995, she was a director of the cricket charity Chance to Shine and chaired the MCC sub-committee, which advised on how best to welcome female players into clubs. .
Norma Izard’s husband died in 2011, leaving her with two sons.
Norma Izard, born September 9, 1933, died December 30, 2023