ECB announce £20m investment as part of wide-ranging restructure to women's game

Forty full-time professional, domestic contracts will also be introduced to sit alongside the central contracts already handed to players in the national setup

The ECB has announced the introduction of funding for 40 full-time professional, domestic contracts as part of a major restructure of the women’s game in England and Wales, which includes a £20m investment over the next two years.

The deals will come in alongside the already-existing central contracts given to members of the national team setup, with salaries in addition to any earnings from contracts signed for The Hundred.

It is one aspect of the wide-ranging reforms that make up the governing body’s strategy on women’s cricket for the period between 2020 and 2024.

When the England team itself turned professional in 2014, an elite performance system was built to accommodate those changes, but it was on the top of a national structure that had not yet received the same focus.

As a result, the organisation is set to invest £20m into the game over the next two years, with a longer-term ambition of investing £50m over the course of the five-year period. Of the £20m, £8m will be put into improving club facilities, with a further £2m invested into the county pathway.

The news was announced at an invite-only event in a private members club in Covent Garden.

A 10-point action plan has been released to further explain the game’s plotted transformation, including reference to a “new semi-professional, eight-region structure”, which has caused some concern among players, who could be left displaced by the changes.

However, some counties have already committed to continuing as they are. The county T20 competition – not the Kia Super League – which was initially due to be parked at the end of the current season to allow for the full introduction of the reforms, will take place in 2020.

The 50-over competition, though, will be played between the eight regional hubs. The overall plan, according to the ECB, has been put together following two years of consultation with the 38 counties and Cricket Wales. Eight new regional directors of women's cricket will be hired to look after the newly created hubs, while "talent managers" are to be hired to support the game at county age-group level.

It also includes a pledge to increase the number of girls and women playing the sport recreationally, a pathway to develop young players between the ages of 11 and 17 and the intention of increasing the number of women involved in the “cricket workforce”.

Such an overarching shift in the women’s game has become visibly necessary in recent months as Australia, who have benefited from major changes in their domestic structure, have pulled away as the world’s leading women’s team. The summer’s Women’s Ashes series – a monthlong multi-format contest – was dominated by the visiting Australian side.

^{Western Storm won the final edition of the Kia Super League}

ECB managing director for women’s cricket, Clare Connor, said: “Recent initiatives have given women and girls more opportunities to play, such as All Stars Cricket for five to eight-year-olds, the South Asian female activators programme, and the Kia Super League for our most talented domestic cricketers.

“But to truly transform women’s and girls’ cricket, we must now move from targeted standalone programmes to addressing the whole pathway as one.

“We have an amazing opportunity to make cricket the sport we want it to be – a sport that is modern, innovative and inclusive. I have been so heartened by the level of enthusiasm, commitment and support for this plan from everyone involved in cricket.”

ECB chief executive, Tom Harrison, added: “During the development of Inspiring Generations, and extensive conversations and research across the game, the strong appetite to transform cricket’s relationship with women and girls was abundantly clear.

“There is tremendous energy across the cricket network to pursue the game’s largest growth opportunity and to increase the number of women and girls playing, watching and volunteering at every level of the game.

“This plan, formed in collaboration with the whole cricket network, and supported by our commercial and media partners, represents a crucial step in achieving our ambition of making cricket a gender-balanced sport.”

England Women’s captain, Heather Knight, said: “This action plan is a really exciting next step in the continued growth of women’s cricket. We need more young girls to be inspired to play and those young girls need to be able to see a clear pathway above them that encourages them to continue pursuing the game.

“As England players we’re fortunate enough to meet lots of young girls who love the game and it means so much to us to see how much they love cricket. Much of this plan is about normalising the game for women and girls and I’m excited to see how this increased opportunity takes the game forward.”