This restructuring is the third time in eight years that the ECB has changed the format of women’s domestic cricket in England. The first of these established the Kia Super League (KSL) in 2016, where six semi-professional teams were formed to theoretically bridge the gap between international level and the women’s County Championship. Now, women’s cricketers would be paid to play domestically in England.

After four years of qualified success, the KSL was set aside in favour of the Hundred, but when that was delayed by Covid in 2020, into the breach came the current system of eight regional teams, representing vast swathes of England and Wales, with the cream of domestic talent now contracted professionally.

However, from 2025 onwards, those sides will be scrapped, and individual counties will take full control of a three tiered domestic system. Eight Tier One teams will be under the umbrella of a first-class county, with the rest of the teams consisting of a mix of amateur or semi-professional Tier Two and Three teams. The ECB will invest £1.3 million per year into each of the Tier One sides until 2028.

The change comes partly in response to the ICEC report, which highlighted the continuing disparity between men’s and women’s domestic cricket, and recommended a fundamental overhaul of the women’s domestic pay structure. While the regional system has fostered the introduction of professionalism at a domestic level and accelerated standards, significant cracks have started to appear under the strain of increased growth.

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One of the issues which has emerged is the size of the regions each side represents. Drawing talent and making sure resources are equally available across large areas is challenging. Western Storm, for example, represent Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire and Wales, while Northern Diamonds cater to players from Chesterfield to Northumberland, with over 150 miles in between. Pathway players who train at the regional hubs often travel significant distances to do so, and those who reach the top level face lengthy commutes or relocation.

It is not a given that the biggest counties will be given Tier One status by default, with some of the ‘smaller’ counties looking to take themselves to the next level through women’s cricket, especially with some of these having regularly hosted women’s international cricket recently. Northants, for example, hosted the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy final in 2023, as well as the second ODI between England and Sri Lanka. The County Ground in Northampton has hosted three women’s internationals since 2020, as well as Charlotte Edwards Cup finals day in 2022. But a non-Test county that also misses out on Tier One status will be faced with an increasing divide across the board.

“We’re quite successful at hosting women’s cricket here,” says Northants’ Kiddy. “We’re not a Test match ground and we’re not a Hundred ground, so we see it [Tier One] as an opportunity for growth… Unlike some other clubs, we’re financially solvent and we don’t have any debt, and we feel we’re in a good position to run it effectively within a budget… We’re not arrogant, and we’re not a wealthy club. But we’re very much a community members and people-based club and it just felt the right thing for us to be doing this.

“Our fear is that it [not getting a Tier One side] just creates a bigger gap. We don’t have a Hundred team and then if we don’t have a Tier One team as well, you have to work that much harder to get the girls in your region to aspire and be inspired to play cricket for Northamptonshire… Until we see more detail on what Tier Two looks like, then we have to assume it looks a lot like what we have today. We’ll make it work, but we’d lose out on a lot of the incentive and inspiration that we’d get from a Tier One side.”

As well as what not getting a Tier One side could look like for smaller counties, there’s also anxiety over which of the ‘bigger’ venues will miss out.

“If we weren’t lucky enough to get a Tier One side we would invest that money instead into significantly developing our pathway,” says Rees. “We want to make sure young cricketers have the opportunity to be the best cricketers they can be, and obviously we’ll be supporting our closest Tier One team.

“But our intention would be to run the best possible Tier Two team so if the Tier One teams get expanded in the future, we would be considered for that round of Tier One teams. We’re massively focussed on our pathway anyway but it [a Tier One side] would give us more funds and resources to make that better.”

Aside from what this change means for the counties who are or are not successful, these worries also translate across to the players who are facing another change to their working environment. After three redesigns in eight years, there is hope that this will be the last one.

“I think everyone is a bit frustrated that we’re changing again when it feels like we’ve got something going,” says Adams. “It seems a bit scary when you look at changing again but the principle of what they’re trying to do now seems great.

“Players don’t want to keep changing. It’s daunting when you don’t quite know what’s going to happen next. Get this one right so that we can maintain it and keep it, and make this the plan moving forward.”