Former England cricket captain Rachael Heyhoe Flint dies aged 77
Video report by ITV News Sports Editor Steve Scott
Former England cricket captain Rachael Heyhoe Flint has died at the age of 77.
A pioneer of the women’s game in a near 20-year international career, she represented her country 45 times in Tests and one-day internationals and won the 1973 World Cup as captain - a role she fulfilled between 1966 and 1978.
Heyhoe Flint became one of the MCC's first women members, and in 2004 was the first woman ever elected on to the club's full committee.
The MCC said on twitter it was "deeply saddened" by her death.
MCC president Matthew Fleming added that Baroness Heyhoe Flint was the first "global superstar" of women's cricket.
In a very personal, heart-felt tribute, Fleming said: "This is a terribly sad day for everyone involved in cricket and all of us at MCC.
"Rachael Heyhoe Flint was a pioneer of women's cricket - she was the first global superstar in the women's game - and her overall contribution to MCC, cricket and sport in general was immense. We all loved her."
The BBC's Test Match Special described her as a "legend and pioneer".
Awarded an MBE in 1972 and OBE in 2008, Heyhoe Flint was also the vice-president of Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club.
A statement on the club's website read: "Still revered, still loved, her passing leaves a gaping Rachael-size hole which it is impossible to fill.
"It is difficult to believe she has gone. And nowhere will that sadness be felt more painfully than amongst her family and closest friends and former colleagues.
"The thoughts of everyone at Wolves are with Rachael’s husband Derrick, son Ben, step-children Rowan, Hazel and Simon, and her brother Nicholas. And all of her extended family and friends."
Heyhoe Flint's England career included a series of firsts: she recorded a then world record score of 179 against Australia in 1976; captained the first England women’s team to play at Lord’s and hit the first six in a women’s Test match.
She hit almost 1,600 runs at 45.54 in her 22 Tests, and averaged more than 58 in her 23 one-day internationals.
She also played in goal for the England hockey team.
Her involvement in sport did not stop in retirement. She later became television's first female commentator, one of the first two female appointees to the England and Wales Cricket Board and the first woman to be inducted into the International Cricket Council's Hall of Fame.
In 2011, Heyhoe Flint was invited by the then Prime Minister David Cameron to sit in the House of Lords as a Conservative Party peer.
Her son, Ben Heyhoe Flint, said: "We’re deeply saddened by the passing of Mum, and yet we’re filled with immense pride as we now look back on her achievements in government, cricket, football, charity and community on which she had such a profound influence.
"She tackled all of the above at full speed, showing us how grace, a cheeky sense of humour - and tenacity - can break glass ceilings.
"We hope that we all can continue the legacy that she leaves behind.”