ECB unveil teams and schedule for Women's Cricket Super League
The England and Wales Cricket Board's answer to the breakout success of Australia's Women's Big Bash League was unveiled today, with the announcement of the schedule and team names for this summer's inaugural Women's Cricket Super League.
Six teams, comprising a total of 90 players from England and the rest of the world, will come together for a 16-day round-robin competition from July 30 to August 14, with a finals day at Chelmsford to follow a week later on August 21.
The six teams are Lancashire Thunder, Loughborough Lightning, Southern Vipers (who will be based at Hampshire's Ageas Bowl), Surrey Stars, Yorkshire Diamonds and Western Storm, who will be drawn from the best players at Somerset, Gloucestershire and the University of Exeter.
"Today represents another huge step towards delivering our vision of creating a dynamic, inspirational and high quality domestic women's game in England," said Clare Connor, the ECB's director of women's cricket. "This time last year the Women's Cricket Super League was simply a concept, and now we have six exciting new teams, some innovative partnerships and a fixture list that includes at least 11 matches being played at seven different first-class grounds across the country."
The key aims of the WCSL, according to the ECB, include the development of ever higher standards for the England women's team with greater competition for places, alongside inspiring more women and girls to play cricket at all levels. It will offer, the press release added, "new opportunities, a new narrative for the game and new role models, as well as a network of six new teams linked to their communities."
"As each stage of the process unfolds, we keep striving to push new boundaries," added Connor. "We are now looking forward to working with the six teams over the next few weeks to reveal their kits, colours and brands, as well as the central competition logo and branding."
In total, seven first-class counties, five non-first-class counties and three universities are involved in the project, which is intended to expand from T20 only in its inaugural year to both T20 and 50-over cricket in future seasons. All six teams have been awarded hosting rights for a four-year period from 2016-2019 inclusive.