Sussex cricket club ditches all-white kit to ease period worries

It marks the first time in the club’s 200-year history that whites have been ditched

A cricket club in Sussex has ditched its traditional white kits in a move to ease women’s worries about their periods showing.

Lewes Priory CC said it wanted to make women and girls feel more comfortable when playing the sport while on their period.

It is believed to be the first club in the UK to swap the all-white look for a black kit instead.

The decision came after discussions with gender inclusion consultants, as it looked to make its kits more inclusive.

Susie Lanaway, women’s captain at the club, told The DailyTelegraph: “It’s well known that girls stop playing sports as they become teenagers and women. There’s nothing less tempting than playing in whites when you have your period.

Lewes Priory Cricket Club’s Under 12s team in the new kit (Lewes Priory CC)

“We want to make it as easy as possible for our junior girls to carry on playing as they get older, and a really easy way of doing that is dropping whites, so they aren’t put off by the prospect of having their periods and having to wear white trousers.”

Both the women’s team and the juniors teams, including the mixed team, will wear black shirts and dark trousers.

Kevin Ives, chairman of Lewes Priory said: “One team, one kit, one club sums up our whole approach. We want girls and boys to come here, play cricket and to love the game as much as we do. The switch to coloured kit is a really important part of the work we are doing towards our goal to be a truly inclusive club.”

The change comes days after a tennis star revealed the “pressure” of playing Wimbledon while on your period.

British tennis player Alicia Barnett said that suffering from a “really heavy” period affected how she played in the qualifying matches of the tournament.

“I love the tradition of all-whites and I think we will handle it pretty well,” she said on Saturday.

“I think being on your period on the tour is hard enough, but to wear whites as well isn’t easy.”

She added that being on her period made her “stressed” while playing.

She continued: “Obviously, you’re trying to play world-class tennis but it’s really hard when you’re PMS-ing and you feel bloated and tired.”

Lewes Priory Club plays at the the Stanley Turner Ground in Lewes, East Sussex.