History will be made this weekend when the inaugural Kia Super League (KSL) kicks-off in Leeds, Southampton and Taunton with all six KSL teams in action for the first time across Saturday and Sunday.
Katherine Brunt, Kate Cross, Lauren Winfield, Georgia Elwiss and Charlotte Edwards (Photo: ECB)
Yorkshire Diamonds captain Lauren Winfield will lead her team out on home soil at Headingley in the opening match of the round-robin Twenty20 (T20) competition tomorrow (Saturday 30th July), taking on Loughborough Lightning, captained by England team-mate, Georgia Elwiss.
Sunday (31st July) will then see the Southern Vipers led by Charlotte Edwards and Heather Knight’s Western Storm, two completely new cricketing entities, play their first ever matches, when they host Natalie Sciver’s Surrey Stars at the Ageas Bowl and Lancashire Thunder captained by New Zealand’s Amy Satterthwaite in Taunton.
In total the Kia Super League will feature 15 group matches over a 16 day period from Saturday 30th July to Sunday 14th August, with all six teams bidding to qualify for Finals Day on Sunday 21st August at the Essex County Ground, Chelmsford.
Kia Super League Launch (Photo: ECB)
The Super League Captains have produced a video to help set the scene called Show Your Colours.
On the eve of this historic moment for women’s cricket in England, ECB’s Director of England Women’s Cricket, Clare Connor, has written a blog on ECB.co.uk to reflect on the creation of the Kia Super League, providing an insight into the competition objectives and what we can look forward to over the next three weeks:
“It’s a new venture, a competition built entirely from scratch. It has required new ways of working, it’s created new team identities and new squads of players.
“We wanted to create a competition that would underpin the future strength of the England team – especially with the privilege and huge opportunity that lies ahead in hosting the ICC Women’s World Cup in the summer of 2017.
“The tournament will obviously expose more of our players than ever before to a higher level of competition. We’ll really see who’s got what it takes to push our current England squad for places; we’ll see who relishes the challenge and thrives under pressure.
“We’re stepping in to the unknown but we feel ready. The talking, thinking, planning and preparation is complete.
“I hope the cricketing public, and the public in general, will see this competition as a bold step for our sport and join us for the ride, starting this weekend in Leeds, Southampton and Taunton. We’re smashing some exciting new boundaries for women’s cricket – and it should be a lot of fun.”
To read Clare Connor’s blog in full, please click here.
Report courtesy of the ECB
