The Kia Oval will host the first-ever Vitality Blast Women’s Finals Day next season following confirmation of the 2025 domestic finals dates and venues.
A total of eight domestic county finals will be played across men’s, women’s and disability competitions next season with the historic inaugural Vitality Blast Women’s Finals Day to be staged on Sunday July 27, live on Sky Sports Cricket.
The County Ground, Northampton is to host the Vitality Blast Women’s League 2 Finals Day on Saturday July 26 with the Metro Bank One-Day Cup Women’s League 2 final scheduled for Visit Worcestershire New Road on Sunday September 14.
The Disability Premier League Final is also set to again be played in September to cap a busy month of domestic finals.
The first piece of domestic silverware on offer for the season will be the inaugural ECB Women’s T20 County Cup – a new knock-out cup competition consisting of teams from all three tiers of the expanded women’s domestic structure – with Finals Day hosted by the Cooper Associates County Ground, Taunton on Monday May 26.
The Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy final will be staged on Saturday September 21 at the Uptonsteel County Ground in Leicester.
Women’s cricket teams to align with men’s in 2025 domestic cups
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’
Source : Sky Sports
