Netta Rheinberg

Netta Rheinberg MBE (24 October 1911 at Willesden, Middlesex – 18 June 2006) played for the English women's cricket team in a single Test, but was a notable figure in the women's game as an administrator and journalist. Rachael Heyhoe-Flint, the former England captain, said of her work as an administrator, "Netta was an action girl. We had very few people then, and she galvanised activity, partly just by having a great personality and a sense of humour."

"For a north London Jew, playing cricket for England and being one of the game’s most important administrators is about as well-trodden a career path as prime minister or bacon-buttie salesman," wrote Rob Steen shortly after her death aged 94 in 2006. "That Rheinberg happened to be a woman made her accomplishments all the more admirable."

She played her cricket mostly for Gunnersbury and Middlesex, as a batsman and slip fielder. Her one Test came on England's tour of Australia in 1948-9. She was the team's manager, and had to play in the match because of injuries to other players. She made a "pair".

She was secretary of the Women's Cricket Association in 1945 and from 1948 to 1958. She was also membership secretary and vice-chairman of the Cricket Society.

She edited the magazine Women's Cricket, reported on women's cricket for Wisden for more than thirty years, and wrote a regular column for The Cricketer. With Heyhoe-Flint as co-author, she wrote a history of the women's game.

In 1999 she was one of the first ten women to be awarded honorary membership of MCC.

References

• Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 2007, ISBN 978-1-905625-02-4, 1568-9: Obituary
• Cricinfo profile
• Cricinfo obituary