2023 ANNUAL REPORT

11 CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S REPORT L I S A P U R S E HOU S E CHI EF EXECUT I VE’S REPORT There was, of course, the comforting constant of county cricket – a summer in which, by retaining their first division status and returning to the knockout stages of the Vitality Blast, Nottinghamshire’s first team built a platform from which to push further forward in 2024. While Notts’ men’s side followed a path first laid out by others more than a century ago, an elite women’s team competed in their first-ever season here, as The Blaze called Trent Bridge home and delivered a string of remarkable performances. In a year without a men’s Test, we witnessed the very pinnacle of the women’s game as England and Australia competed in a five-day Ashes Test – the first ever on home soil. And as an example of what the future may hold for our sport, the men and women of Trent Rockets appeared side-by-side in double- headed fixtures at our historic home. In a global sense, cricket is diverging. Here, our principal aim is to ensure that we are placed at the centre of that landscape and continue to serve as a venue where all formats are expertly hosted and well supported.While preference of format is a personal choice, the conversations and debates I have enjoyed with members, supporters, colleagues and committees bear testament toTrent Bridge being ideally placed to ensure that all can prosper. The sheer number of people who have found a format of the game to enjoy at our home is ever-growing – indeed, a quarter of the record- breaking crowd who joined us across the five days of theWomen’s Ashes Test had never set foot inside Trent Bridge before. It was a high-quality contest, with all the ebb and flow that characterises cricket’s longest format at its best – and asTammy Beaumont brought up that historic double-century on day three, the reception she received It could be argued that the future of Trent Bridge came firmly into focus in 2023, as the established and the new provided entertainment for us all.