The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has announced the creation of a three-tiered domestic competition and a change in ownership structure to help develop women’s cricket.
In an overhaul of the women’s domestic game, an extra £4m to £5m of yearly funding will be invested into women’s cricket from 2025 to 2028, taking the annual investment in this space to c.£16m.
The new plan will see the eight existing women’s regional teams evolve into professional ‘Tier 1 Clubs’ with each team owned, governed and operated by an individual ‘First Class County (FCC)’ or Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).
The 18 FCC counties and MCC have until March to submit their bids to become professional, with unsuccessful applicants then invited to fill semi-professional and amateur slots in tiers two and three of the restructured pyramid.
The ECB has stated that it hopes the tier system will ‘further grow the depth and reach of the women’s professional game.’
The first four years of the new scheme will see no promotion or relegation.
Richard Gould, Chief Executive Officer of ECB, said, “Since 2020, through the advent of the women’s Regional Model, we have seen significant progress in the professionalisation of women’s cricket, but we are still only just scratching the surface of its potential.
“To continue moving forward, and to make cricket a gender-balanced sport, we need a change in the ownership model and governance structure underpinning the women’s professional game.
“This invitation to tender and the uplift in funding therefore represents our next step: a step that will embed the ownership of our eight women’s professional teams within the game, drive accountability, and elevate the status of women’s domestic cricket to enable it to go further, grow faster and reach its full potential.”
Beth Barrett-Wild, Director of Women’s Professional Game at the ECB, added, “The pace and nature of change within the women’s cricket landscape over the last ten years, but especially the last five, has been rapid and transformational.
“The number of opportunities for girls and women to access the sport has never been greater, and the number of people following and falling in love with the women’s game has never been higher.
“We believe that the next chapter is less about the separate transformation of women’s cricket and more about the whole game evolving together.
“The invitation to tender issued to all 18 of our FCCs and MCC today to progress the ownership and governance of our eight women’s professional teams, along with the significant expansion of the women’s domestic competition structure from 2025 and uplift in funding, represent crucial next steps in cricket evolving into the sport we want it to be.
“One with equality of opportunity for men and women, boys and girls, to feel like it is a game for them.”
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