Men’s and women’s professional domestic T20 and 50-over competitions will be fully aligned for the first time next season in further steps to fuel the growth and reach of women’s professional cricket.
The move will see men’s and women’s teams competing side by side in the Vitality Blast and the Metro Bank One Day Cup from the 2025 season.
The eight women’s Tier One professional county teams
GROUP A
DERBYSHIRE
Preview by Nigel Gardner - ECB Reporters Network
Captain: Ross Whiteley
Overseas player: Daryn Dupavillon (South Africa)
2023 finish: Eighth (Group B)
2023 leading run scorer: Luis Reece (392)
2023 leading wicket taker: Sam Conners (12)
Key player: Reece had an impressive tournament in 2023 when he also took 11 wickets with his left-arm swing. The
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have confirmed the formation of Tier 2 and Tier 3 in the revamped women’s domestic cricket structure, to be launched in full in 2025.
Derbyshire, Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Kent, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Middlesex, Sussex, Worcestershire and Yorkshire will make up Tier 2 in the 2025 season.
The ten Counties will play 50-over and 20-over
The Vitality Wildcard Draft took place today with 32 players being drafted into The Hundred off the back of their stand-out form in the Charlotte Edwards Cup and the Vitality Blast.
It leaves all eight teams in The Hundred, across both the women’s and men’s competitions, with full squads with just under 50 days to go until the first game gets underway at The Kia Oval.
England Men’s Test
The ECB Board today confirmed that Yorkshire will become a women’s Tier 1 Club for the 2026 season, subject to meeting a series of conditions.
Yorkshire had been announced as a Tier 1 expansion Club in April of this year, to join by 2027. The decision to confirm 2026 as the preferred season in which Yorkshire will participate in Tier 1 has been taken to provide greater certainty about the i
As the game gathers in Cardiff today for the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) Annual General Meeting, new data shows that the number of people playing, attending or following cricket surged by 2m last year as nailbiting Men’s and Women’s Ashes series captured the nation’s imagination.
Bumper ticket sales and viewing for both series saw the total jump to 14.7m – up from 12.5m the previous
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has confirmed the eight First Class Counties who have been successful in their bid to be awarded Tier 1 women’s team status from 2025.
As a further outcome of the Tier 1 invitation to tender process, the ECB has also today announced the selection of two additional First Class Counties to expand Tier 1 from eight to ten teams by 2027, and an intent t
Surrey have been emphatically backed to win a hat-trick of Vitality County Championship titles by the 18 first-class county captains.
Ahead of the domestic summer starting tomorrow the ECB has released the results of the annual captains' survey.
The leaders of all men’s county teams were asked to provide their predictions for the red-ball season with 12 of the 18 captains anticipating th
Melissa Story and Katya Witney have won the two individual honours at the 2023 ECB Domestic Cricket Journalism Awards, which were presented in partnership with the Cricket Writers’ Club at The Kia Oval today.
Story won the coveted Christopher Martin-Jenkins Broadcaster of the Year with a CWC judging panel labelling the BBC Test Match Special commentator as a “terrific young broadcaster with
England men’s cricketer Ben Stokes has confirmed today that he does not wish to be considered for selection ahead of this summer’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, which will take place in June in the West Indies and USA.
The England Test captain’s primary focus is to get fully fit to bowl not only for the summer of Test cricket, which includes two three-match Test series’ against West Indies and Sri L
The partnership will see Vitality continue to be the title sponsor of the Vitality Blast and England Men’s and Women’s Vitality IT20s until December 2026.
Vitality has also extended its sponsorship as the ECB’s Official Wellness Partner across The Hundred and Test cricket.
In addition, Vitality will become the official title sponsor of the Vitality County Championship for the 2024 season.
The
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is today announcing the next stage in the evolution of women’s cricket with the creation of a three-tiered domestic competition structure and a shift in the ownership model underpinning the women’s professional game.
In addition, the ECB has also confirmed that it will invest a further £4m-£5m per year into the women’s professional game from 2025-20
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