By Zainab Shafiq 
The ECB has now announced that it is implementing structural changes to domestic women’s cricket, which will come into effect from the 2025 season. With the massive revamp, women’s competitions fall in line with the men’s One-Day Cup and T20 Blast, therefore marking a new beginning for the sport.
The women’s version of the two tournaments will be organised in place of the existing Charlotte Edwards Cup (T20) and Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy (50-over). The two new tournaments however will be played for trophies named after the two England legends. Eight ‘tier 1’ counties, including Durham, Essex, Hampshire, Lancashire, Somerset, Surrey, Warwickshire-as Birmingham Bears-and Nottinghamshire-The Blaze-will compete in these tournaments. Yorkshire are due to join that top tier in 2026 and Glamorgan in 2027.
One of the most important nuggets of this reformation is the fact that there will be a knock-out cup competition involving all three tiers of the women’s domestic structure. This will afford counties from the lower tiers the chance to play at major venues and pit their skills against top-tier teams.
The ECB is also planning double-header matches where both men and women will play on the same day, a format already trialled in The Hundred. These will drive up interest and commercial visibility of the women’s game.
Underpinned by a GBP 8 million investment by 2027 and an expected 80% rise in professional female cricketers in 2029, the reshaping by the ECB is all about elevating women’s cricket: Beth Barrett-Wild, the Director of the Women’s Professional Game, said,
“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. 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.”
“The next step in the growth of the women’s professional game is to produce commercially vibrant and visible teams and competitions that excite fans and continue to showcase the quality of women’s cricket.
“As we have seen through The Hundred and alignment of our England Men’s and England Women’s teams, we believe that by putting our men’s and women’s competitions and players on the same platform we can exponentially increase the reach of the women’s domestic game and intensify the depth of feeling fans have for our women’s teams moving forwards,” Barett-Wild added.
Also, see:
These Pakistani players will take part in CPL 2024