In news which will be widely welcomed throughout the women’s cricket community, the ECB have now officially promised the county boards that women’s county cricket will continue until at least 2021, with the T20 Cup being played on Sundays through May and June.
In an email to the counties seen by CRICKETher, the ECB’s Managing Director of Women’s Cricket, said:
“We understand the need for women’s County Cricket to continue.”
“ECB will therefore run a women’s County T20 competition in 2020 and 2021.”
Crucially, this will be centrally funded by the ECB:
“For 2020 and 2021 ECB will continue to fund Counties on a similar basis to 2019, with monies being provided to support travel, accommodation and hosting costs.”
There are caveats – the long-term aim to effectively replace the lower divisions of county cricket with a reinvigorated club setup remains very-much the plan, with a review of the situation planned for 2021; but Connor acknowledges there is work for both the ECB and the boards to do here if that is to become viable, promising to “address hardball club cricket with real commitment.”
This isn’t a total u-turn – it effectively confirms that the 50-over Women’s County Championship is no more; but the ECB has shown that it has listened to the feedback received during the consultation process and been open to a compromise which will keep hundreds of players in the game, playing cricket at a competitive level and wearing their county shirts with pride.
CRICKETher 
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Hallelujah! Will the county T20 competition be for the current counties, or the counties associated with the eight 100 teams? It is shame it cannot be for 50 overs too, but there is some hope with this change of plan!
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Seems a strange and only slightly welcome decision. Strange and slightly? I would have hoped that the version of the sport to keep going if you want to develop players with a view to support the national team, would be the 50-over.
This (the T20 support), of course, will be cheaper but we’ll see what happens in 2021. It could well be a case of “we’ll abolish it more slowly”
That the club game is shrinking is beyond dispute and at least it is recognised in this ECB statement. So often statements seem to suggest the powers that be are unaware of this.
I spoke to the captain of one of the stronger university teams recently and gathered that the attitude from a number of her players was “if I can’t go back and play county cricket, I guess it’s hockey or tennis or…” I’m afraid many club players may feel the same and wish to leave the sport. That will simply make club cricket that bit weaker too. We had a neat stack of cards built into a pyramid and pulling out one at the bottom simply makes top of the pile… – well you don’t need a physics degree to work it out.
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