Middlesex Cricket can today confirm it will be submitting a bid to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to become one of the eight First-Class Counties who will operate a tier 1 professional Women’s team from 2025.
The Women’s game is set to go through its biggest evolution since 2020, when Sunrisers were born, the elite Women’s side for London and the East region, who have played in the elite Women’s regional format since its inception in 2021 with Middlesex as the side’s host county.
The growth and development of Sunrisers, more recently under the stewardship of Head Coach Andy Tennant, has been exceptional, culminating in a fourth-place finish in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy in 2023, beating eventual winners Southern Vipers twice and narrowly missing out on a place in the knockout stages of the competition.
Historically, Middlesex Cricket has a long and proud record of playing Women’s cricket in the county, with the first recorded Middlesex Women’s game taking place in 1935.
The introduction of the first ever List-A Women’s County Area Championship in 1980 saw Middlesex Women crowned champions in that inaugural year – a title we defended the following year and won again four years later.
Our record of producing players for the Women’s international game is something we are rightly proud of, with a long line of England internationals having proudly gone on from representing Middlesex to playing for England.
The Club’s forward vision is to run two professional sides, Middlesex Men and Middlesex Women, playing in parallel, at the highest level of the game, focussing on achieving success in both the Men’s and Women’s game, and growing the vibrant Women and Girl’s game that already exists in the county – a set-up that now sees over 150 sides competing regularly.
Our Women and Girl’s player pathway received an enormous boost last week, with the Club securing the freehold of GSK’s Swyncombe Avenue Sports Ground – a venue that will become the home of our Women and Girl’s pathway development plans for the future, enabling us to build a clear pathway from the recreational game to the professional game.
With our bid receiving the full support of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), Middlesex Cricket firmly believes it is well placed to align itself with the ECB’s vision to make cricket the most vibrant, captivating, and robust women’s professional team sport across England & Wales.
Andrew Cornish, Chief Executive Officer of Middlesex Cricket said:
“The growth of Women’s sport has been widely acknowledged in recent times, and the ECB’s focus on ensuring that cricket stays firmly at the front of that growth is paramount.
“As the Sunrisers’ host county, we have seen just what is possible with professionalisation of the Women’s game, and as a Club with such a proud history in the Women’s game, we need to ensure we continue to do all we can to support that growth.
“We are extremely grateful for the support we are receiving from our partners MCC in our bid, who share our vision to see as much professional Women’s cricket played at Lord’s as possible, and we are hopeful that we are able to carry on the incredible amount of work that has already gone into developing the professional Women’s game to this point.
“To see professional Men’s and Women’s sides out on the field, playing in Middlesex colours, is something we all aspire to, and we hope to be able to bring that vision to life in the coming few years.”
