Women’s professional domestic T20 and 50-over competitions will align with the men’s tournaments for the first time next season.
The 2025 campaign will see eight professional women’s teams compete in the inaugural Vitality Blast and Metro Bank One Day Cup.
These matches will take place alongside the men’s competitions as the England and Wales Cricket Board looks to help the women’s game grow.
“A big driver for the re-organisation of women’s professional cricket has been to enable us to better use the leverage and existing scale of men’s county cricket to accelerate fanbase growth for our women’s teams and players,” said Beth Barrett-Wild, director of the women’s professional game.
“Looking ahead to the 2025 season, we’re therefore really excited to fully align our men’s and women’s domestic white-ball competitions for the first time.”
Durham, Essex, Hampshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Somerset, Surrey and Warwickshire were awarded Tier 1 status by the ECB in April as part of a restructure of women’s domestic cricket in 2025.
They will all compete under their county names, except the Trent Bridge-based team that will continue to be called The Blaze.
Warwickshire will use the name Birmingham Bears in the Vitality Blast like their men’s team, while the Red Rose county will be called Lancashire Thunder.
Like with the Vitality Blast men’s finals day, the women’s competition will culminate in a women’s finals day, while the men’s and women’s Metro Bank One Day Cup competitions will each have two semi-finals and a flagship final.
Competition schedules and venues will be announced later this year, with the expectation that men’s and women’s double headers are likely to form some part of the aligned Vitality Blast schedule.
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Source : Sky Sports
