Durham bids to have professional women’s cricket team

Durham Cricket is bidding for a professional women's team

Durham is seeking to have the first professional women’s cricket team in the North East.

The bid comes as the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) seeks to totally overhaul the structure of professional women’s cricket.

As part of the move, there will be eight new top flight professional women’s teams in England and Wales in 2025.

England men’s captain and Durham all-rounder Ben Stokes is also backing the bid and said the North East had a great way of “nurturing talent”.

Durham Cricket has had a professional men’s team for over 30 years.

If successful in its bid to the ECB, the new team would be the first professional women’s cricket team in the North East.

The club will find out if it has been successful later this summer.

Rachel Hopkins, head of the female talent pathway at Durham Cricket, said: “Our local women’s professional team is in Yorkshire and we are very much aspiring to have our women’s professional team out here in Chester-le-Street [the location of Durham’s cricket ground].”

Durham Cricket's director of cricket Marcus North added the North East has a "rich sporting culture".

“What we don’t have is a professional women’s team but we’ve got the talent, we’ve got the players, the girls and the interest there,” he said.