Middlesex Cricket is disappointed to learn that the Club’s bid to host one of the eight Women’s professional Tier One sides from 2025 has proved unsuccessful.
Last year the England and Wales Cricket Board announced exciting plans to further develop and invest in the growth of the Women’s game, by allocating professional Tier One status to eight First-Class counties, replacing the regionalised elite Women’s structure that has been in place since 2020.
Today, the ECB named the eight First-Class counties who have been awarded Tier One status from 2025, with two further counties, Glamorgan and Yorkshire, being awarded Tier One expansion status from 2027, taking the number of Tier One sides to ten.
For the last three years, Middlesex has been the lead county on delivering cricket in the London and East region and has been instrumental in developing and growing the Sunrisers brand since its inception.
Last year, the Sunrisers made their competitive debut at Lord’s, the Home of Cricket, and in 2024 are set to play twice in St John’s Wood. In Middlesex’s bid to the ECB, a firm commitment was made, which was fully supported by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), to increase the volume of professional domestic Women’s cricket played at Lord’s from 2025 onwards if Middlesex were awarded Tier One status.
Disappointingly, today’s announcement by the ECB, which confirmed that both Essex and Surrey had been named as Tier One hosts for the London and southeast region, ends the aspirations of Middlesex to achieve this aim, and sees just one side in London being awarded tier one status.
The Club recently took ownership of its very own sports ground, at Swyncombe Avenue in Hounslow, which the Club were proud to announce would become the Club’s dedicated home of Women and Girl’s cricket. Middlesex Cricket will remain unwavering in its commitment to continuing to develop the Women and Girl’s game, with Swyncombe Avenue providing the home for development of the pathway.
On hearing of the ECB’s decision that Middlesex Cricket had missed out on being awarded Tier One status, the Club’s Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Cornish, commented:
“To say we are disappointed with the ECB’s decision in not allocating Tier One status to Middlesex Cricket is a huge understatement.
“I would like to go on record in thanking our partners and friends at MCC for their wholehearted support in the bid we put forward to the ECB, and we know that they remain committed to growing the Women and Girl’s game. We will continue to work with them in delivering on this ambition moving forwards.
“For Middlesex, we will now enter a bid to attempt to secure Tier 2 status and will continue to focus our efforts on developing and growing the Women and Girl’s game, targeting 2029, which is the first opportunity the County will now have to achieve Tier One status, following the ECB’s announcement of their plans to then expand the initial allocation of Tier One teams to twelve.”
