Women's regional hubs to play for Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy

The one-off 50-over competition has been created to ensure women’s domestic cricket is played despite the impact of Covid-19 on the summer, with two regionalised groups and all players being paid

The eight new regional hubs for domestic women’s cricket will play for the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy in honour of the World Cup-winning captain.

The one-off competition has been created to ensure women’s domestic cricket is played despite the impact of Covid-19 on the summer.

The 50-over tournament will begin on the August Bank Holiday weekend, with the eight regional centres formed as part of a revamp of the elite domestic structure split geographically into two groups of four. Teams will play each other twice in a round-robin group phase consisting of six matches each.

The winners of each group will meet in a final on September 26 hosted by the finalist with the most points at the end of the group stage, with the full list of fixtures being released on Wednesday alongside those of the T20 Blast.

Central Sparks (Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire), Lightning (Loughborough University, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire), Northern Diamonds (Yorkshire, Durham and Northumberland) and Thunder (Lancashire, Cheshire and Cumbria) will comprise one group.

South East Stars (Surrey and Kent), Southern Vipers (Hampshire, Sussex, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Dorset, Isle of Wight and Oxfordshire), Sunrisers (Middlesex, Essex, Northants, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Norfolk and Suffolk) and Western Storm (Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wales, Cornwall, Devon and Wiltshire) will form the other group.

The regionalised nature of this year’s competition is a direct result of the coronavirus pandemic, and was not part of the initial plan for the first year of fixtures under the new women’s domestic structure. Going forward, therefore, neither the tournament name nor structure has been confirmed.

Each region will have a squad of 15 players, with some of those – awarded retainers earlier in the summer – already publicly revealed. The availability of England Women’s players on central contracts will be known once the international schedule has been confirmed, with plans in the offing for a September series against South Africa.

All players involved in the competition will be paid to play, with the exception of those on central contracts.

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ECB managing director of women’s cricket Clare Connor said: “I’m delighted that, despite the obvious challenges of Covid-19, we have been able to continue to build the new women’s elite domestic structure to the point that we’ll see the eight regions playing 50-over cricket this summer.

“Off the back of appointing the eight regional directors of women’s cricket and awarding regional retainers, we have worked closely with colleagues across the men’s domestic game to ensure we are able to stage domestic women’s cricket safely and at high-quality venues.

“Rachael Heyhoe Flint would have been proud to witness the professionalisation of the domestic women’s game. She did so much for our sport and without her work, passion and dedication, we wouldn’t be where we are today.

“It’s therefore fitting that this special edition of the competition will be played in her honour. I’d personally like to extend my thanks to Rachael’s son, Ben, with whom we collaborated on the logo for the competition.”

Heyhoe Flint’s son, Ben, added: “Mum has provided our family with so many reasons to be proud and we are grateful that her determination to give women's cricket the platform it deserves continues to be recognised.

“We are honoured that this competition has been named after her, but I know mum would only have cared that female cricketers had yet another opportunity to play the game they love in difficult times, which is something she was very used to.”

Heyhoe Flint captained England to the first-ever World Cup title in 1973, while she fought tirelessly for equality off the field. The Women’s Cricketer of the Year award was created and named after Heyhoe Flint in 2017 as a tribute to her following her death, aged 77, that year.

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