South East Stars confirm 11 contracts for 2023 season

Kira Chathli, Phoebe Franklin, Kalea Moore, Alexa Stonehouse, Emma Jones, and Ryana Macdonald-Gay have all been awarded contracts while Paige Scholfield has signed from Southern Vipers

South East Stars have confirmed 11 professional contracts for the 2023 season.

Aylish Cranstone, Bryony Smith, Dani Gregory, and Alice Davidson-Richards have all received two-year contract extensions while Paige Scholfield has been recruited from Southern Vipers.

Scholfield, a 26-year-old batting allrounder, made 52 appearances for Vipers in the Kia Super League, Charlotte Edwards Cup and Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, scoring 524 runs and taking 30 wickets.

A further six players have been awarded their first professional deals, with Kira Chathli, Phoebe Franklin, Kalea Moore, Alexa Stonehouse, Emma Jones and Ryana Macdonald-Gay all putting pen to paper on two-year contracts.

Allrounder Moore had an impressive 2022 campaign, scoring 133 runs, taking eight wickets and maintaining a team-leading economy of 4.85 in the Charlotte Edwards Cup.

^{Paige Scholfield has joined South East Stars from Southern Vipers [Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images]}

In the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, Macdonald-Gay scored 112 runs and took four wickets in four appearances while Franklin finished second in her side's wicket-taking charts with eight dismissals.

Eva Gray and Chloe Brewer have, however, left the club, moving to Sunrisers and Central Sparks, respectively.

Following a £3.5m funding increase from the ECB, each region will field 10 ECB-funded professional players from February 2023. Surrey have opted to bring forward the start date of three of those contracts to November (in line with the other seven) as well as funding an additional contract.

Sophia Dunkley, Alice Capsey, Freya Davies and Tash Farrant are all centrally contracted.

Regional director of women's cricket, Emma Calvert, said: "Increasing the number of professional players is an important step for the women's game and we are absolutely delighted to have rewarded 11 of our players with contracts.

"There is serious quality in this group and we will be looking to build on last year's platform as we continue to aim to win trophies."

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