England's top women's cricket teams will embark on a new era in 2025, with the introduction of the Vitality Blast and Metro Bank One-Day Cup, mirroring the competitions played by their male counterparts. This alignment aims to enhance the visibility and growth of women's cricket in England.
The Vitality Blast Women's Finals Day will crown the T20 champions, while the Metro Bank One-Day Cup will feature semi-finals and a final. The eight teams competing in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup will represent Durham, Essex, Hampshire, Lancashire, Somerset, Surrey, Warwickshire, and The Blaze (representing Nottinghamshire and surrounds).
The Vitality Blast will feature eight teams: Birmingham Bears (Warwickshire), Durham, Essex, Hampshire, Lancashire Thunder, Somerset, Surrey, and The Blaze. Yorkshire will join the top flight in 2026, followed by Glamorgan in 2027.
A knockout cup competition will also be introduced in 2025, involving teams from all three tiers of the women's domestic structure. This will provide opportunities for counties at all levels to compete against each other.
Beth Barrett-Wild, ECB director of the women's professional game, emphasized the importance of aligning the men's and women's competitions: "By putting our men's and women's competitions and players on the same platform, we can exponentially increase the reach of the women's domestic game and intensify the depth of feeling fans have for our women's teams moving forwards."
The new structure will see an investment of £8m per year into women's domestic cricket by 2027, bringing the total annual investment to £19m. This funding is expected to increase the number of professional female players in England and Wales by 80% by 2029.
Tags: #Women'sCricket, #VitalityBlast, #MetroBankOneDayCup, #ECB, #DomesticCricket
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