The ECB have confirmed to CRICKETher that they are “in discussion with the counties” over the future of women’s county cricket after the 2021 season.

The ECB had previously implied that the 2021 County T20 Cup would be the last of its kind, having granted the competition a stay of execution back in 2019 for the next two seasons.

However, many of the new Regional Directors of Women’s Cricket, as well as many of the regional coaches and players, see county cricket as playing a crucial role in the domestic set-up going forwards – putting pressure on the ECB to rethink their initial decision.

“It fills a step in the pathway,” Richard Bedbrook, South East Stars Regional Director, told CRICKETher. “It adds value for players of all levels – for players coming through the age group pathways who might aspire to reach a regional level, they can do that knowing that they’ve got a platform to do that at county level.”

“When you’ve got two counties like Kent and Surrey, who are proud of what they’ve done in women’s cricket, the ‘recreational’ tag is a bit of a misnomer. Every [regional] player that has represented those two counties turns up with a mindset that is no different to a Stars game.”

Tash Farrant, who captained Kent in their successful bid to top the South East group in the regional County T20 competition, said that lifting another trophy for her county had been a great start to the season, and added that county cricket had played a crucial role in her personal development as a player.

“Being part of a Kent team that has been so strong for a very long time, I’ve been very lucky in terms of the standard being really good – it’s always pushed me,” she said.

Several younger players have this season used county cricket as a springboard to claim spots in regional squads – notably Hampshire 18-year-olds Gemma Lane and Finty Trussler, who were both late additions to the Southern Vipers side.

Farrant recognised the importance of this, telling CRICKETher: “Another great thing about [county cricket] is the mix – seeing some of the younger Kent girls coming through and then coming into our women’s side and performing. For example Kalea Moore has now been given a South East Stars summer contract. It’s really important to get more experienced players playing with younger girls coming through.”

“It’s all about getting in as much cricket as possible. Before, we haven’t really had a proper long season, whereas this season we’re playing from April all the way through to October, which is exactly what we want – a proper season where a lot of girls are going to get opportunities.”

The ECB themselves discussed the role of county cricket in their review of the inaugural Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, carried out in October 2020, and concluded that it still had a useful role to play. While no concrete decisions have yet been made about its longer-term future, it seems unlikely that the ECB’s ongoing conversations with the counties will do much to change this sentiment.

By Richard Clark

We’re less than fifteen overs into the game and Central Sparks are going along quite nicely. Already 75 on the board for the loss of just two wickets, with Amy Jones on 26 and just getting going, whilst Gwenan Davies is equally set at the other end. There’s time to spare and a big score on the cards.

The wily Katie Levick is on, but not causing too many issues until, with the final ball of her second over, she entices Jones down the pitch for a lofted on drive. Whether the ball isn’t really there for the shot, or whether Jones doesn’t quite get the connection she wants, it doesn’t come off. Alex MacDonald pouches the catch at mid-on and Jones is gone for 26. Sparks subside for 144, leaving almost twelve overs unused, and Northern Diamonds canter to a nine-wicket win.

It’s harsh to blame the defeat on Jones, but equally Sparks most experienced batter has got herself out with the proverbial “all day” to bat, and left her side in a precarious position, from which they don’t emerge well.

That was last August – the opening day of the inaugural Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy.

Fast forward to the new season.  Jones has already taken a century off the same Diamonds attack as her side pulled off an audacious opening day win at Headingley, and now she’s back on home turf for the first time since that costly misjudgement.

Sparks are not so well set now.  31 for two, and already into the eleventh over, the innings has started sluggishly, added a tinge of respectability only by Western Storm’s generosity with their ‘wides tally’.  Almost immediately she loses another partner in the cruellest of circumstances, slamming a straight drive back at Dani Gibson, which the bowler manages to divert onto the stumps to run out Davies.  41 for three.

For too long, perhaps, there was a tendency to think that England were lucky to have such a capable deputy to Sarah Taylor, when what we should have been thinking was that we were lucky to have such a capable Amy Jones.  Jones is too good, too talented, to be thought of as anybody’s deputy.  One wonders whether this mindset seeped into her own thinking – she’s always seemed to lack the ‘swagger’ of a player who knows she belongs on the international stage.

We are about to see Amy Jones swagger.

After 18 overs, at 60 for three, there’s still more splutter than spark about the home side’s innings, and with the inexperienced Milly Home for company much rests on Jones’s shoulders.  As if to emphasise the point, Gibson puts down a difficult caught and bowled chance when she is on 14, and the next ball sails over mid-on for four.  It’s not the start of the onslaught, not yet, but it is a turning point.

Two overs later Jones lofts Gibson for the first six of the match, then adds a boundary to rub it in.  Mollie Robbins replaces Gibson, and Jones puts her into the Hollies Stand for another six.  Before much longer she has her fifty, at exactly a run a ball, unperturbed by the loss of Home along the way.

This is the sort of innings Amy Jones has played more than once for England, the sort where she looks so good… and then gets herself out.  She nearly does exactly that here too, driving Hennessy into the hands of the diving Lauren Filer at mid-off.  But Filer spills what was, in fairness, an awkward chance.  Two balls later Jones does it again, this time finding the leaping Heather Knight at cover.  This one is not a difficult catch but the England skipper can’t hold on, nor can she at the second grab as the balls falls to the ground.  There’s a third drop soon after, but this one is by a gentleman in the Hollies Stand, and he’s excused by an understandable preoccupation with the pint in his other hand.  

There won’t be any more chances.

The hundred comes off 83 balls – perfect acceleration – and Storm have no answers.  The next fifty runs take just twenty deliveries, including three more sixes, ramps, scoops, drives, and a baffling – to us mere mortals – reverse sort-of-pull off Shrubsole, if you don’t mind, to bring up the 150.

Only now does she tire a little.  I kid you not that at one point I was seriously doing the maths to work out whether a double-hundred was within range, but in the end she ‘makes do’ with 163 not out.  A record for the competition, and one that somebody will need to bat very well to beat.  The ovation from the 250-strong crowd is warm and genuine, and to a man, woman and child it’s a standing one.

Sparks total of 295 for seven proves beyond Storm’s reach, although Knight does her best to atone with 59 in a century opening stand, and her opening partner Lauren Parfitt is unfortunate to fall for 91 – by some margin the highest score by a non-professional so far in this season’s competition – just as she and Sophie Luff are positioning their side well for the closing stages.

From 183 for one, Storm lose wickets regularly as Ria Fackrell in particular puts the squeeze on.  Fackrell was the sixth bowler used, having taken none for 50 off seven overs against Diamonds two days previously.  Here she picks up four for 34 at a time when Eve Jones might have been wondering who to turn to.

But this was Amy Jones’s day, one that she should remember every time she goes out to bat, because Jones is as naturally gifted a batter as England have in their ranks. If she needed proof of that herself, she has it now.