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Hampshire Cricket Announced as Women’s Cricket Super League Host
Hampshire Cricket announced as Women’s Cricket Super League Host
The Women’s Cricket Super League will start this summer with Hampshire Cricket competing in a Twenty20 (T20) event against the other five teams
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has today announced that Hampshire Cricket, with partners, is one of the six hosts that will compete in the inaugural Women’s Cricket Super League this summer.
The six Women’s Cricket Super League hosts in full are:
Lancashire County Cricket Board with partners: Lancashire County Cricket Club, Lancashire County Cricket Club Foundation
Loughborough University
South West: Somerset County Cricket Club, Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, University of Exeter
Surrey County Cricket Club
Yorkshire County Cricket Club
The announcement follows a rigorous bidding process over the last six months, which saw 28 different organisations express an interest in becoming a Women’s Cricket Super League host. The award process culminated today, when the ECB Board approved the six selected hosts.
Hampshire Cricket will now work with a network of surrounding partners, including Berkshire Cricket Ltd, the Dorset Cricket Board, Isle of Wight Cricket Board Ltd, Oxfordshire Cricket, Southampton Solent University, Sussex Cricket Ltd and Wiltshire Cricket Ltd, to form a single Women’s Cricket Super League entity.
The Women’s Cricket Super League will start this summer with Hampshire Cricket competing in a Twenty20 (T20) event against the other five teams. Thereafter the competition will include both T20 and 50-over formats. All six teams have been awarded hosting rights for a four year period from 2016-2019 inclusive.
Further details on the format and timing of the Women’s Cricket Super League, along with a confirmed team name and identity for Hampshire Cricket, will be announced in due course.
ECB Director of England Women’s Cricket, Clare Connor, said:
“We are absolutely delighted to announce that Hampshire Cricket, with partners, will be one of our six Women’s Cricket Super League hosts for the next four years. The diverse and innovative partnership working from across the cricket and educational landscapes included within this south central bid is hugely exciting.
“Overall, the award process to identify the six hosts was competitive from the outset, and the interview panel was very impressed by the ambition displayed by all of the bids received.
“Our vision for the Women’s Cricket Super League is to create an exciting, dynamic and high quality domestic women’s game in England, where the world’s best players come together to drive performance standards and inspire women and girls to love cricket. Hampshire Cricket, and all five of the other hosts have passionately demonstrated that they share this aspiration and we are now really excited to work with them to deliver this next stage in the evolution of women’s cricket in this country.”
The key aims of the Women’s Cricket Super League 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 new opportunities, a new narrative for the game and new role models, as well as a network of host clubs linked to their communities.
Hampshire Cricket Chief Executive, David Mann, said:
“This is fantastic news for Women’s cricket in the South. This competition will take the women’s game to a new level and we are hopeful that it will inspire more women and girls to play, attend and follow cricket at all levels. The facilities at the The Ageas Bowl provide a perfect focal point for the South Central region team and we are looking forward to putting out a team that the region will be proud of.”
Hampshire Cricket’s bid General Manager, Bobby Parks, said:
“I am thrilled that Hampshire’s consortium bid to host one of the new Women’s Cricket Super League teams has been successful. This is an exciting opportunity to bring top class women’s cricket to the The Ageas Bowl and to give the women and girl’s game a massive boost throughout the newly formed Southern Region. Our bid partners have an equal determination to grow women and girls cricket across the region and we look forward to combining our efforts to build further on strong foundations.”
