THE inclusion of three women in Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year list was celebrated as “a really huge statement” yesterday, but the landmark announcement came with a note of caution.

Former England captain Clare Connor said the sport must “keep challenging itself to be better” as she acknowledged cricket is not immune from the sexism issues that have plagued politics, Hollywood and wider society.

Women for the first time dominate the five-player Wisden list, a long-standing male-dominated preserve, with World Cup winners Heather Knight, Natalie Sciver and Anya Shrubsole honoured. Only two women, Claire Taylor and Charlotte Edwards, had previously been included on the list since its 1889 inception.

Connor, who skippered her country from 2000 to 2006, is now the England and Wales Cricket Board’s director of women’s cricket.

She said: “The Wisden Almanack is very precious in our cricketing heritage and it’s a really fantastic celebration of not only what those three players achieved last year and the role they played in Heather being able to lift the World Cup in July, but I think it’s a wonderful acknowledgement of where the women’s game is in the cricketing consciousness.”

Connor knows out-of-step views and conduct have lingered within cricket, saying: “There is everyday sexism and some unwelcome comments and attitudes and practices as we know around gender equality in every industry.

“You only have to look at Hollywood and some of the stuff that, in the last four or five months, has come out of Westminster and the charity sector.”

The #MeToo and Time’s Up movements have led to behaviours being questioned and confronted across many strands of society.

Connor will not tolerate sexism standing in the way of women in cricket.

She said: “It’s right that it’s called out and it’s right that sport generally, and cricket particularly, has to keep challenging itself to be better and to be completely welcoming and completely inclusive.

“It’s a really huge statement from Wisden. I’m sure it’s one they thought long and hard about because it’s really putting themselves out there.

“The conservative option would be to have named one of the five and a bolder step would have been to name two, but what they’ve done is a really, really bold and outspoken gesture and statement.”