The ECB has posted a full programme of matches, which is as close to a tantalising foretaste of summer as we can reasonably get.
There are two interlocking competitions, a repeat of the highly successful Rachael-Heyhoe-Flint Trophy – in itself a heart-warming decision –and a T20 competition. Both are organised on the pattern of the eight hubs established last year to provide a positive stepping-stone towards England recognition (full details).
The T20 is placed between two sections of the 50-over version. It’s hard to believe that every cricketer finds it easy adapting her game so quickly to the conflicting needs of the two formats, but Clare Connor and her staff saw the proposed sequence as the only reasonable outcome.
So the RHF Trophy runs from 29 May to 12 June then enjoys a three week spell in September. The final stages once more involve three teams, a feature the ECB has made its own. Who would prefer to see four teams involved, with traditional semi-finals and a final? Oh, I am alone.
It’s a very positive feature that for the second year running the venues listed are first-class centres of excellence, including test grounds.
The new Regional T20 competition – ‘regional’ here simply refers to the eight hubs – is neatly organised with two groups of four teams playing each other home and away. The final is set for 5 September.
Selection Policy
After my disparaging words about England’s selection for the current tour of New Zealand, I can only hope that leading performers in the summer games are given proper reward for their efforts. When you look at the England squad now playing in New Zealand, it’s almost as if the matches played late last summer were of no account. The only player to be added to well established names was Izzy Wong, and she had what was described as a non-playing role. In fact she did take part in the second match, so you never can tell.
My hope would be that the two international series planned for the summer – no details yet – would allow the most deserving uncapped players from the two competitions to be added to the England regulars.
The presence of the internationals in the middle of the programme will inevitably mean the eight franchises having to sacrifice their leading players for certain games. But that allows more squad members to savour the challenge of this level of cricket, a major reason for introducing an intermediate stage between county and top-level cricket.
The Ifs and Buts
What a pity that all this good news – you can almost smell the newly cut grass – depends so heavily on the nation coming to terms with the pandemic.
The ECB worked wonders last year in getting a complex and fruitful programme off the ground. It would be nice to think that this time round it won’t be necessary to clean the ball quite so often.
The Hundred
This new competition tells a very different story.
As you read the lists of players signed on, your eye runs from left, the men, to right, the women. To the left £100,000. £80,000, £60,000; to the right nothing. But we can be sure the women players won’t have to pay for a taxi to get them to the ground.
