Essex 'could not miss opportunity' for women's team

Essex all-rounder Kelly Castle was in the Sunrisers squad which won the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy last September

Essex chief executive Dan Feist says it was vital that the club was chosen as a base for one of the eight fully professional women's county teams that will make their debuts this summer.

The former regional structure has been changed by the England and Wales Cricket Board, with Essex, Durham, Hampshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Somerset, Surrey and Warwickshire granted tier one status under the new set-up.

They will compete alongside the men in the T20 Blast and 50-over One-Day Cup competitions, with Essex playing their first game in the former away to Hampshire on 30 May.

"The biggest thing I've noticed from having the women's team is the impact it had on the female staff in the organisation in terms of them feeling there's a real connectivity, role models and inspiration, and we've seen that right through into the community," he told BBC Look East.

"It was fundamentally the key strategic point in terms of us being sustainable... with an area as large as the East of England, and Essex being a huge county as part of that, we couldn't afford to miss the opportunity of not having that representation."

He continued: "From our work in east London, up through Essex and into East Anglia, that shows our potential, so having the women's team and being a hub for that was a real key part of our strategic vision moving forward."

The ECB says the new structure will see "£8m of new funding per year being invested into women's domestic cricket by 2027 – taking annual investment in this area to £19m".

And they hope it could lead to an up to 80% increase in the overall number of professional women's cricketers in England by 2029.

The bulk of the Essex women's squad formerly played for Sunrisers under the old regional structure and last November announced a partnership with the Essex Rebels basketball team so they can use their facilities as a training base.

And Feist said the squad were "so passionate, so engaged in terms of where we want to go".

Andy Tennant is the Essex women team director and former Kent and Leicestershire all-rounder Darren Stevens is part of their coaching group.

"It's great that now, girls in the (age group) pathway have that option to think 'I'm going to be a professional cricketer for Essex'," said Southend-born all-rounder Kelly Castle.

"When I was growing up that was never really an option, that was all very unclear. It's really cool to have a bit of a full circle moment and look back and think 'I'm here now'."

She added: "If you look at the way women's sport is going and has been for the past few years, we've still got a lot of work to do to keep pushing women's cricket and women's sport in general, but it's great that now we are getting the recognition for it.

"All the training and hard yards we've put in, hopefully, fingers crossed, it will be a really successful summer."