She was best known for being captain of England from 1966 to 1978, and was unbeaten in six Test series: in total, she played for the English women's cricket team from 1960 to 1982.

Heyhoe Flint was captain when her team won the inaugural 1973 Women's Cricket World Cup, which England hosted.

According to Scyld Berry: "She was, among other achievements, the Dr WG Grace of women's cricket – the pioneer without whom the game would not be what it is.

Her parents Roma Crocker and Geoffrey Heyhoe were teachers of physical education who met at a college in Denmark.

[4] She was instrumental in the effort to hold the first Women's World Cup, securing funding from her friend Jack Hayward.

[9] She played as goalkeeper for the England national field hockey team in 1964[3] and was a single-figure handicap golfer.

After retiring from cricket, she continued to work as a journalist and broadcaster and also became an after-dinner speaker, businesswoman and board director.

She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours,[16][17] and in October 2010 was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame, the first woman to achieve this accolade.

"Obviously I am really thrilled at my appointment but still very humbled at the thought of joining such a historic institution ... My background in sport, journalism, charity and community work will I hope stand me in good stead, and I hope I can make a positive contribution as a working peer.

"[23] She was subsequently invested as a life peer on 21 January 2011 taking the title Baroness Heyhoe Flint, of Wolverhampton in the County of West Midlands.

[26] In 2021, the MCC announced it would name a gate at Lords after Rachael Heyhoe Flint, and this was formally opened, and a plaque to her unveiled, by her son Ben, along with her protégée Clare Connor, the MCC president, during the August 2022 test match there against South Africa.

Her husband had a first-class cricket career comprising 10 matches for Warwickshire CCC in 1948–1949 playing as a leg-spin and googly bowler.

She authored her autobiography Heyhoe (ISBN 978-0-7207-1049-6) in 1978, published by Pelham Books with a foreword from comedian and cricket-lover Eric Morecambe.