Cricket / Gloucestershire Cricket
Gloucestershire miss out on hosting professional women’s county team
Gloucestershire Cricket have missed out on hosting a professional women’s team as part of the ECB’s major reboot of the domestic women’s game from 2025.
This restructuring will see the regions competing in the T20 Charlotte Edwards Cup and 50-over Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy replaced by a three-tier county system with eight teams playing in a fully professional Tier One.
In the current 20- and 50-over formats, the entire South West region and Wales are represented by Western Storm, who are based at the Seat Unique Stadium in Ashley Down.
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The ECB hopes that by aligning the women’s domestic game with the established county brands from the men’s game, it will become a commercial entity that fans will want to follow. Fans in Bristol, however, have missed out.
Gloucestershire was one of 16 first-class counties to bid for a place in the professional tear but Somerset was selected to represent the South West region ahead of them.
Somerset will compete in Tier One alongside Durham, Essex, Hampshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Surrey and Warwickshire.
The ECB confirmed that Glamorgan and Yorkshire will join them in 2027, and two further teams will also be added in 2029.
The unsuccessful counties, including Gloucestershire, will now be asked to go through “a process to determine the composition of Tier 2 and Tier 3,” with the outcome set to be confirmed later this year.
Despite the tier system, there will be no promotion or relegation between 2025 and 2028.
In a statement, Gloucestershire Cricket said it is “delighted to see a Tier 1 professional women’s team secured for the West Country and would like to congratulate Somerset for their successful tender process”.
The club added: “As the game continues to evolve, we are excited for our role in helping to support the women’s professional teams from 2025 onwards and remain very much committed to continuing the important role we have played in developing women and girls’ cricket in the region and nationally.
“We see Gloucestershire and Bristol as key to the delivery of all forms of cricket in particular with respect to the ECB’s stated ambition to make the game of cricket the most inclusive sport in the country.
“Everyone at Gloucestershire is excited about what we can offer the game both now and in the future, and we look forward to working with the ECB to ensure Bristol hosts the very highest level of cricket in the years to come.”
Main photo: JMP
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