When Charlotte Edwards collected her CBE today from the Queen for services to cricket, the acclaimed sportswoman and current captain of the England women’s cricket team, got slightly more than she bargained for.
Her Majesty used the meeting as an opportunity to let her feelings be known on the appropriate length of cricket matches for all-female teams compared with all-male teams. Speaking with Edwards, the Queen allegedly said that men were better suited to the longer format of matches than women:
Although some social media users were quick to take offence at Her Majesty’s ‘sexist’ suggestion that women can’t cope as well as men at test matches, she does at least have history on her side. At present there are far more one-day international matches for female teams than test matches, which can take up to four days. There is only one women’s test match in the seven Ashes matches each year which form the Women’s Ashes Series.
The comments didn’t appear to rain on Edward’s parade, with the cricketer taking to Twitter to say that she was ‘honoured to of received my CBE from the Queen today at Windsor Castle’.
In accordance with the Queen’s English, Mr S suspects that she meant to type ‘have’ rather than ‘of”.
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