Here is a potential XI that will not be appearing in next season’s Tier One:
Tammy Beaumont (captain)
Sarah Bryce (w-k)
Tilly Corteen-Coleman (Canterbury)
Alice Davidson-Richards (Tunbridge Wells)
Tash Farrant (Sevenoaks via Athens)
Phoebe Franklin (Greenwich)
Kirstie Gordon
Ryana Macdonald-Gay (Maidstone)
Kalea Moore (Greenwich)
Grace Scrivens (somewhere in Kent!)
Alexa Stonehouse (Ashford, Kent)
Co-coaches: Laura Marsh and Lydia Greenway
Yes, this is a Kent side, and pretty formidable at that. Of the eleven players all but the two Scots, Bryce and Gordon, are picked from the orchard.
They will not be in the top tier which is restricted to Durham, Essex, Hampshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Somerset, Surrey and Warwickshire.
It would be instructive to see the teams those eight counties could construct, with a similar reliance on nine local players plus two imports.
Nor will Kent be included in an expanded form of Tier One in 2027. Instead it will be Glamorgan and Yorkshire. Tykes may well be feeling the way I do about Kent’s fate: one of the two mighty counties, along with Surrey, who have dominated the scene for a century and a half.
But modern cricket is built on quite different lines. It is no longer enough for a county to be an established nursery of outstanding young players, as Kent has been for decades.
The four requirements for acceptance were:
1 Vision and mission – Their passion, ambition and prioritisation.
2 Quality cricket – Player development and squad composition plans, coaching and sports science and medicine provision, talent pathway activation and training/match day facilities.
3 Passionate fans – Marketing, digital and communications plans, match day experiences and fan facilities.
4 Long-term value – Financial investment, commercial strategy, governance, leadership and EDI plans.
What is not clear is how these four were balanced. Were they of equal importance, or were one or two deemed more essential than others?
In Kent’s case, point two should have swung the day. The Horses have carried all before them in recent years.
In the current Hundred we have nine of the listed XI performing. Tash Farrant has sustained another injury; Kalea Moore played for Southern Brave, her dismissal of Hayley Matthews being voted the ‘Play of the Competition’ in 2021.
Beaumont captains the leading franchise in the 2024 Hundred (as of 080824). Like her, Alice Davidson-Richards has scored a test-match hundred. Grace Scrivens has captained the England U-19 side at a world cup. Tilly Corteen-Coleman has been the talk of this year’s Hundred with her bowling performances and fielding. Ryana Macdonald-Gay’s bowling has advanced so promisingly that she was added to the England ODI squad last June.
The team has most bases covered: the only batter to score centuries in each of the current formats; a fine batter-wicket-keeper; a left-handed opening bat who plays straight and hits the ball hard; two left-arm pace bowlers, one seasoned, the other highly promising; the classiest of the young generation of slow left-armers, plus the best slow bowler Scotland has yet produced; two capable off-spinners and in Franklin, an all-rounder whose worth is appreciated by her team- mates. She can bat up the order, take early wickets and catch anything offered her near the boundary.
The side bats down to Number 10. Only TCC needs to work on her batting skills.
But none of the above is good enough for the ECB, Richard Gould or Beth Barrett-Wild. I’m sure you understand why.
Instead, the players are being swallowed up hungrily by other counties whose smiles proved more winning. For those who are left – and they are full of promise – it will be Tier 2.
