Girls Pathway Nominations Open for 2025-26

Dear Cricket Clubs, School Representatives & Parents/Guardians

The Sussex Cricket Girls Pathway nominations for the 2025/26 season are now open! Nominations will close at 10am on Thursday 11th September 2025.

Please note that there are some major changes to the Girls County Pathway, structure as of 25/26 season, which are detailed below and attached.

Following the recent ICEC Report in Cricket, there were several recommendations made for county age group cricket. Currently we run elite programmes for U11s to U18s.

Over the last couple of months, we have been in discussions with the ECB and as a County to discuss our county girls’ pathway, considering the recommendations made through the ICEC Report. From the report recommendations were made around localised delivery, less travel and creating more opportunities for young people to access the game.

In light of this we are introducing the Early Engagement Programme (EEP) at U10s, U11s and U12s to create more and fairer access and opportunities for more children to play cricket.

Our pathway will change and therefore begin at Under 13 and we will have now have squads at U13, U14, U16 and U18 (which have been changed by the ECB). We will also have development squads at U14/15 and U16/18 as we are aware girls can develop later with their cricket and we want to give girls more opportunities to train and play at a high standard.

Our Early Engagement will be run in areas, with the U10s run out of two areas (North/West and South/East) and the U11s and U12s out of three areas (West, Central and East) this is because the number of girls playing in some areas are lower, but by 2027 we hope to have four areas in which to run all age groups.

The girls will train in areas that are closest to them or have the best access for them to attend. We will have one area run out of Bognor Regis, one at Hove, one at Eastbourne and we are still looking at Crawley, which will combine with Hove.

The U13s – U18s, including the development squads will be based either at Hove or BACA during the winter and summer training will be based at BACA for these age groups.

The U13s will train on a Saturday, while all the remaining age groups will train on Sundays.

Below you can find the whole pathway structure from U10 to Sussex Women and further details on the Early Engagement Programme and County Age Group Pathway U13s – U18s.

The Early Engagement U10s – U11s will have winter practice and summer match play against all areas, playing different formats.

The U10s will practice and play matches with a soft ball. U11s and U12s will start training with soft ball but will move to hard ball and play hard ball matches.

At U10 - U12 they do not need hard ball experience at time of nomination. We will do soft ball assessments at all age groups and depending upon experience will do hard ball and soft ball at U12.

The County Pathway, U13s – U18s (including Development) will have winter practice, summer practice and summer match play against other counties.

Players nominated for the County Pathway at U13 – U18 must have hard ball experience and assessments will be hard ball.

To qualify to be nominated, girls must either:

• Live in Sussex
• Have been born in Sussex
• Go to School in Sussex
• Play for a club in Sussex
• As per UK Home Office rules all players must be in possession of a British passport as under their regulations all players, regardless of age would be considered as a professional sportsperson due to them being registered to a professional or semi-professional sports team.

A player cannot play or trial for another county that they do not qualify for. If there is a player from another county wanted to be assessed discussions must be had with the pathway leads before assessments.

Please also note that being on the Sussex Pathway, there is a route for all players to go on and play at a current Tier 1 county and become a professional cricketer in the future. Girls do not need to go to a Tier 1 county just to be seen for the future to become a professional cricketer, there is a pathway at Sussex that allows you to go through our pathway and still become a professional cricketer.

All players will need to go through the assessment process which will take place at the end of September/October, to be selected for the 2025/26 season.

Registrations must be completed by parents and to register your daughter/ward please click on the link below and noting that all nominations need to be completed before 10am on Thursday 11th September.

Sussex Cricket Girls' Pathway - Nomination Form

If you have any questions on the new Girls' Pathway structure or about nominations then please email me at charlotte.burton@sussexcricket.co.uk.

Kind Regards,

Charlotte Burton - Women's & Girls' Pathway Lead