ECB announce Tier 2 clubs in next stage of 2025 revamp

Middlesex are one of the 10 clubs that will host Tier 2 professional women's sides next season

The England and Wales Cricket Board has confirmed the next stage of its plans to develop the women's domestic game from 2025 with 10 teams given Tier 2 status.

Derbyshire, Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Kent, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Middlesex, Sussex, Worcestershire and Yorkshire will host professional teams from next season.

Tier 3 status will be given to those National Counties sides who compete in competitions at that level.

The ECB have also announced the 2025 season will have a new knock-out competition that will feature teams from all three tiers.

In a statement, the ECB said the aim of the new tournament would "provide all counties with the opportunity to compete against each other, play at some of the country’s biggest venues, and give players across the pyramid the chance to test their skills on an elevated platform."

The 10 teams in Tier 2 will base their season around 50-over and 20-over cricket with further details on the exact structure, and where it fits in the schedule, to be announced in due course.

The ECB confirmed that Yorkshire's elevation to Tier 1 in 2026 rather than 2027 - that was announced in May - will go ahead "subject to meeting a series of conditions".

Glamorgan are to get Tier 1 status in 2027 under plans to expand the top level to 12 teams by 2029.

There will also not be any promotion or relegation between the tiers for the first four seasons.

In April, eight counties - Durham, Essex, Hampshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Somerset, Surrey and Warwickshire - were named as top-tier clubs, whose sides will replace the existing regional teams that compete in the Charlotte Edwards Cup and Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy.

It was the first step of a planned revamp of the women's domestic game that aims to increase investment to £19m per year by 2027.

The ECB want the three-tier structure to "build on the impact of the existing regional model" and to "further grow the depth and reach of the women’s professional game".

Beth Barrett-Wild, director of the Women’s Professional Game, said the establishment of a "thriving and sustainable women’s domestic pyramid" was a "huge step forward" for cricket.

"It brings the new landscape of women’s professional domestic cricket one step closer," she said.

"From next summer we will see up to 39 counties competing across the new structure, which will both accommodate the growth and accelerate the depth of the women’s professional game – on and off the field."