Hurricanes In The West Indies

• England breathed a sigh of relief at their training camp in the West Indies, as the tropical storm dubbed “Hurricane Matthew”, which caused death and destruction elsewhere in the Caribbean, largely passed Jamaica by. The players spent a bit of time on “lock down” at their hotel; but damage locally was fortunately minimal, and the grounds have been inspected by the WICB and passed fit for play… unlike England’s Anya Shrubsole, who is ruled-out of the first 2 ODIs with a side-strain.
• Now the only Hurricane Matthew England have to worry about now is Hobart Hurricane Hayley Matthew(s), who is set to take on her WBBL skipper, Heather Knight, today at Trelawny Stadium, with business getting underway this afternoon at 3:30pm UK time in the 5-match ODI series – look out for a live stream and commentary on TMS.

Hotting Up Down Under

• As dawn breaks on another antipodean summer, the Australians continue to push towards full professionalisation of their domestic game, with the announcement that the New South Wales Breakers, who compete in the 50-over WNCL, have secured a new deal from their sponsor – property conglomerate Lendlease – which will allow them to go fully professional, with all 14 squad players set to take home at least the national minimum wage of $35,000. (And a lot more for those who play WBBL and international cricket on top.)
• Meanwhile in the T20 WBBL, last year’s “Wooden Spoon” winners the Melbourne Renegades have strengthened their squad with the addition of Australian international, and professional novelty sock-wearer, Grace Harris. Harris represented the Brisbane Heat last season, and is the only player in the WBBL’s brief history to have scored a century – clubbing 103 off 55 balls against the Sydney Sixers.

New Zealand Face New South Africa

• New Zealand looked in ominous form as they smashed an “Emerging” South African XI in their warm-up prior to the 7-match ODI series, which also begins today.
• There was some bad news for the White Ferns however, as spinner Leigh Kasperek was ruled out for two months with a broken finger – she’ll miss this tour and the up-coming series v Pakistan.
• Meanwhile South Africa have named their squad for new captain Dane van Niekerk’s first series at the helm, including teenage batting prodigy Laura Wolvaardt, who made her debut against England less than a year ago, progressing to her first international century back in August against Ireland. Wolvaardt is now looking set to be a fixture of the team for years to come; but we also hear that she might soon be spending a lot of time in hospital… a teaching hospital that is, as she concurrently pursues her ambition to qualify as a doctor when she graduates from high school!

Anya Shrubsole has been ruled-out of the first two ODIs in England’s 5-match series versus West Indies. The fast bowler sustained a side-strain during yesterday’s warm-up match against Jamaica.

The news presents something of a problem for England because their back-up quick, Beth Langston, is also out of the first couple of matches, as she completes recovery from a broken finger; so it seems likely England will be taking an extra spinner onto the park tomorrow, though of course they do have all-rounders Nat Sciver and Georgia Elwiss to offer some additional seam options for captain Heather Knight.

The 1st ODI starts tomorrow (Saturday) at 3:30pm UK time.

The ECB have announced that a 50-over Kia Super League, which was expected to take place next summer alongside the T20 competition, will NOT now go ahead in 2017.

The ECB statement we have received states that:

“As we start to map out the 2017 schedule ahead of the ICC Women’s World Cup, we also firmly believe that we must factor in sufficient time for the women’s county 50-over competition and for club cricket.”

The decision has been reached as part of the ongoing review of the inaugural T20 competition, in which the ECB is talking to the six hosts as well as players and partners.

CRICKETher understands that there had been some significant disquiet amongst the counties, who feared that a 50-over Super League would leave the Women’s County Championship unviable due to limited player availability and scheduling constraints.

The 2017 season already looks to be congested, with the World Cup due to take place in July, and it was unclear how a 50-over KSL competition could be fitted in around existing domestic commitments. One proposal, to hold a 50-over KSL in May, would have led to severe shortage of players, given that many have work / educational commitments during that period.

It is as yet unclear whether a 50-over KSL will go ahead in 2018.

England arrive in the Caribbean this weekend for a 5-match ODI series against the West Indies, beginning on October 8th at Trelawny Stadium in Jamaica.

The last 3 games are the “Championship” matches – the ones which count towards qualification for next summer’s World Cup – and if England win all 3, they will seal qualification for 2017*, regardless of how things go in their final matches versus Sri Lanka, who look like a walking 6 points right now, having just been ground to mincemeat by Australia.

England have a squad of 15, and looking at a possible starting XI, most of the options would appear to be amongst the bowlers:

1. Winfield
2. Beaumont
3. Elwiss/ Wyatt
4. Sciver
5. Knight
6. Jones
7. Brunt
8. Shrubsole
9. Marsh/ Hazell
10. Gunn/ Langston
11. Hartley/ Ecclestone

At the top of the order, Winfield and Beaumont are the first on the team-sheet after their golden summer; but both still have something to prove – making runs against Pakistan at home is one thing, but they still need to show they can do it against the top teams in less friendly conditions; and if they fail, the same old questions will be back again, make no mistake.

Elwiss came in at first-drop in all the Pakistan ODIs this summer, so you’d imagine she will do the same in the first ODI here; but coach Mark Robinson might then use the 2nd ODI to give Wyatt an opportunity higher up the order, especially after having seen her make a patient century on the last day of the County Championship season for Sussex against Surrey.

With Knight having decided that she feels more comfortable generally coming in a bit further down, Nat Sciver will be up next – she was obviously explosive against Pakistan, and she had a good Super League too; but having treated even the ODIs this summer as T20-style “boshes”, she needs to show she can change her game up a bit when required in the ODI format against tougher opponents.

Moving into the bowling, barring injury, both Brunt and Shrubsole are of course automatic selections; and England will be really hoping that injuries don’t rear-up early on, because Beth Langston won’t be available until the “second half” of the tour, as she completes her rehabilitation from a broken finger.

Finally turning to the spinners, under Mark Robinson it looks like England want to try to take the field with a left-right-arm combination available, so the lefties – Alex Hartley and Sophie Ecclestone – will probably interchange throughout the series, unless one of them does something spectacular (either spectacularly good or to be fair, spectacularly bad) to change that.

The right-armers present more of a dilemma perhaps – Robinson has clearly become an effusive fan of Laura Marsh, since her surprise recall flying into the World T20 after Dani Hazell got injured; and Marsh played all the ODIs against Pakistan at Hazell’s expense, with Hazell only coming back for the T20s. But there are no T20s here, and Robinson will be reluctant to leave Hazell totally out in the cold, not least because he’ll need her if injury-prone Marsh has any recurrence of her on-going shoulder problems.

One thing is certain – the West Indies won’t roll-over like Pakistan did. These will be tough, hard-fought matches against the World T20 Champions, who currently sit in 2nd place in the Women’s International Championship – just above England in 3rd. England could play really well and still lose the series and a final 2-3 scoreline would be no surprise.

The only scenario England have to be very careful of is losing all 3 Championship matches, which would mean they really couldn’t afford to slip-up against Sri Lanka – the pressure would be on then; but that is a bridge they’d have to cross if and when they came to it.

In the meantime, our job as fans is to sit back and hopefully enjoy some fantastic cricket, and with live-streams promised by the West Indies Cricket Board of all 5 games, we are looking forward to doing just that!

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* The table isn’t as close as it looks because West Indies and India, and South Africa and New Zealand, have yet to play each other, so one of each have to drop points and won’t therefore be able to catch England.

It’s been a busy week in women’s cricket…

Women’s International Championship

• Australia have completed an ODI series-sweep against Sri Lanka. With victory margins of 4 wickets, 78 runs, 9 wickets and 137 runs, the Southern Stars were wholly dominant throughout; and they finished up with a record 10-wicket win in the one-off T20 game. It makes them the first side to achieve automatic qualification for next summer’s World Cup.
• Following their poor performance against Australia, Sri Lanka’s coach Lanka de Silva has called for more women’s domestic matches. The current domestic format allows for just 5 matches per season. He told Cricinfo: “How can you compete with countries like Australia, England and New Zealand when you play so little cricket? Where is the exposure and the experience?”
• In the wake of BCCI chief Anurag Thakur ruling out any future bilateral cricket ties with Pakistan, there are question marks hanging over the India-Pakistan Women’s Championship ODIs, scheduled to take place in the UAE this month. Should India forfeit the six points on offer, they will fail to automatically qualify for the 2017 World Cup and will have to take part in the tournament qualifier (ironically alongside Pakistan!)

WBBL

• Smriti Mandhana has become the second Indian woman to sign for the Women’s Big Bash League. The 20-year-old batsman will be joining Brisbane Heat, who finished last season in sixth place.

England

• Tammy Beaumont has been named Player of the Summer at this year’s Professional Cricketers’ Association awards. With 342 runs in the 3 ODIs against Pakistan, including an unbeaten 168 at Taunton, she beat off strong competition from Lauren Winfield and Nat Sciver.

Ranking = Runs * Strike Rate * Wickets / Economy – Min 100 Runs + 5 Wickets

This year’s Division 1 50-Over County Championship all-rounder rankings are dominated by the big international stars.

At No.1, England captain Heather Knight was once again a rock for Berkshire, with her two best performances both coming in losing causes – 92 with the bat against Warwickshire and 3-16 with the ball versus Kent.

Meanwhile, at No. 2, Knight’s New Zealand counterpart, Suzie Bates, stepped onto the English summer scene with a crash, a bang and (dare we say?) a wallop – her 206 runs and 9 wickets were a big part of why Kent won the County Championship; and she has certainly set down a marker for next year’s World Cup, as she flies home with all 3 domestic trophies in her kit bag!

Georgia Elwiss, stepping up to the Sussex captaincy in Sarah Taylor’s absence, makes the list at No. 3 after a very consistent season – she’ll remember the game against Somerset at Bath in particular, where she took 6 wickets as the hosts were knocked-over for just 126, and then hit 45 opening the batting as Sussex chased them down in under 30 overs.

Only one non-international player met the all-rounder qualifying criteria of 100 runs plus 5 wickets – Yorkshire’s opening batsman Hollie Armitage. Armitage is only really a part-time all-rounder at best – she bowled less than 20 overs across the season – but the numbers say what the numbers say (!) and so Armitage makes the list, with a best batting performance of 70 against Staffs, and a best bowling of 4-17 in just 4 overs, cleaning up the tail against Berkshire.

Ranking = Wickets / Economy

The star of this year’s Division 1 50-Over County Championship bowling rankings is Kent’s 18-year-old off-spinner Megan Belt, with 16 wickets at a fantastic economy rate of just 2.63. If you were following the Kia Super League you might remember Belt from… oh… no… hang on… amazingly she wasn’t selected for Super League – so if there aren’t six KSL coaches out there right now, kicking themselves sharply in the shins… then they jolly well should be!

There is actually a serious point here – the KSL teams undeniably gravitated towards “local” players – you were more likely to get picked for Surrey Stars if you were a Surrey player, more likely to get picked for Lancashire Thunder if you were a Lancashire player, etc. etc.; and whilst this is understandable, it did means some very good players like Belt missed-out when on pure merit they probably really deserved to get a game.

Anyway… Belt’s response has certainly been the right one – she has made the best case she can for inclusion next season, and if someone doesn’t snap her up, they won’t be kicking themselves… we’ll be doing it for them!

Meanwhile at No. 6, Middlesex’s overseas pace-bowler, New Zealander Holly Huddleston, is another who has her eye on next season… but in her case it is the 2017 World Cup that is the prize. Huddleston, who from the boundary looked like the quickest bowler we saw in the County Championship this year, played a handful of internationals in 2014/15 but was unable to establish herself in the side, and wasn’t selected for the World T20s; but her performances at 50-over in England seem to have been instrumental in earning her a recall to the White Fens squad just in time for the run-up to 2017.

Finally at No. 16, someone we sadly won’t be seeing next year is Amanda “Steamer” Potgieter, who is off to start a new life in New Zealand. In 14 years which brought her to Berkshire via Hampshire and Surrey, she has been a stalwart with both bat and ball, all whilst juggling a full time career in the armed forces; and she’ll be much-missed not just on the field, but as part of the wider women’s cricket community – we wish her well!

Ranking = Runs * Strike Rate

This year’s Division 1 50-Over County Championship batting rankings are headed-up by Danni Wyatt, in her first season at Sussex after signing from Notts. Wyatt helped her cause considerably with a near-run-a-ball hundred against Surrey on the last day of the season – one of only two centuries scored in Division 1 this term – the other being Eve Jones’ 110, also against Surrey.

Surrey’s Kirstie White ended the season as the County Championship’s highest run-scorer with 337 runs, including 3 fifties at an average of 48; but a relatively sedate Strike Rate of 54 pushed her down the rankings to No. 6.

A couple of younger players on the way up are Surrey’s Bryony Smith at No. 9, who also had a good Kia Super League, and Berkshire glove-butler Carla Rudd in at No. 11 – finally starting to fulfil the promise that she showed as a junior with the bat.

But this doesn’t mean the old-timers are done yet, with Kent’s ex-England duo of Charlotte Edwards and Lydia Greenway at Nos. 10 and 13 respectively; and Middlesex veteran Beth Morgan also making the top 20.

The West Indies Cricket Board has become the latest to offer significantly improved central contracts to its women’s team, which like the New Zealand contracts announced earlier this year, will lift many of the squad into the realms of full professionalism for the first time.

The number of contracted players increases from 11 to 15; and although the WICB have not released details of the salaries to be paid, CRICKETher understands that the average remuneration including match fees etc. is likely to be in the realms of $30-40,000 (USD). Adjusted for cost-of-living, this represents something like £35,000 – not a king’s ransom, but a good living wage nonetheless.

Interestingly, the president of the Players Association which negotiated these contracts with the board, Wavell Hinds, cited not the recent WWT20 win, but consistency over a number of years, saying:

“Our women senior team has been a solid elite performing group over the last decade. As such, the improvement and security in their compensation package is well deserved.”

This is an important point – as Raf Nicholson argued in her CricInfo Cordon column last year, tying the contracts to particular successes merely creates a hostage to fortune when those successes inevitably pass into history.

In the wake of this year’s successful T20 KSL competition, the ECB are now making plans for 2017 – including the extension of KSL to 50 overs, which we are assured will definitely take place before the World Cup, due to begin on 26 June.

In fact the current suggestion, according to a recent ECB document seen by CRICKETher, is for matches to take place on Saturdays and Wednesdays during May, with a final on the first weekend in June.

Sounds reasonable… or does it?

There will be very few overseas players in this inaugural 50-over KSL competition. Few boards are likely to release players for a tournament which takes place right before a World Cup. Therefore the teams that contest the 50-over KSL will be almost totally made up of England, Academy and county players.

Nothing wrong with that. Except… it doesn’t seem very compatible with a tournament played on weekdays in May.

Outside of the contracted England players, all female cricketers in England are still amateurs. That means they are either a) students, or b) holding down jobs which they juggle their cricket around.

Students – whether at college or university – will almost all have exams in May. It seems inconceivable that any of these players will choose to put KSL before formal examinations, which cannot be rearranged when (not if) they clash with KSL training / match commitments – and why should they be expected to? Women’s cricket is not yet a meal ticket for any except a very select few.

Those with jobs have the option of taking holiday in order to play in KSL matches – but with two (big) caveats. Firstly, for any of those – such as Vipers’ Carla Rudd and Arran Brindle – who are committed to teaching or term-time coaching jobs (a not inconsiderable number) it is likely to prove nigh on impossible to get leave to play in midweek games in May.

For others like Beth Morgan, who took 3 weeks leave from work (some of which was unpaid) in order to play in the inaugural 20-over KSL, it will come down to a straight choice between playing in 50-over or 20-over KSL. Many will opt for the latter.

So what are we left with? Essentially a competition which will take place with many of the best non-international players in England – surely the very players the tournament was aimed at – unavailable.

Could the 50-over KSL be rescheduled? Unlikely. Timings are going to be very tight next season, with most teams – not least England – likely to want some time to come together and train in the weeks preceding the World Cup; and with the T20 KSL to follow hot on the World Cup’s heels. It is difficult to see when else a 50-over competition could be fitted in, were it not played in May.

But if things go ahead as planned, the risk is surely that the KSL “brand” will be massively devalued, and that the excitement which built up around this year’s competition will quickly dissipate.

Perhaps it might be better to kick the idea of a 50-over KSL into the long grass for the moment, and focus efforts on the Women’s County Championship instead?