Southern Vipers Announce Brand-New South Central Counties Cup Competition

The summer of 2022 will see the launch of a brand-new women’s domestic 50-over cup competition, called the South Central Counties Cup.

The competition will be played out across the summer between the six consortium counties that fall within the South Central region supported by the Southern Vipers as part of the - ‘transforming women and girls’ cricket’ - initiative launched by the ECB in early 2020.

Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Dorset, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, and Sussex will play out a round robin tournament that will see the winning county receive the South Central Counties Cup, alongside a host of players receiving personal accolades for individual performances.

The primary objective of the South Central Counties Cup is to provide meaningful peer-on-peer competition for the best 72 players (as decided by county performance lead coaches) who sit one tier lower on the performance pyramid to those players who will represent the Southern Vipers in this season’s Charlotte Edwards Cup and Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy.

Adam Carty, Regional Director of Women’s Cricket for the South Central Region, said: “To provide a competitive platform for players who could potentially otherwise go under the radar and to give them the opportunity to demonstrate their skills on a meaningful stage is a progressive step.

“Our responsibility, as the Southern Vipers, is to positively affect multiple tiers of recreational and elite women & girls’ cricket and we are delighted to be able to get this competition up and running in 2022.

“We are hopeful that this will prove to be an effective talent ID program alongside a meaningful and competitive event that will see players emerge and develop in all aspects of their game whilst encouraging healthy inter-region, county competition across the south.”

Each county will play five 50-over matches from 30th May to 11th August, and there will be a live league table with MVP recognition, just like in the elite game, with the best players, at the conclusion of the competition, taking part in a three day festival of cricket in mid-August.

Players will be selected for the ‘best of region’ matches by a consortium panel of senior women’s county head coaches, county performance leads, as well as Charlotte Edwards – Southern Vipers Head Coach, Adam Carty – Regional Director of Women’s Cricket, and Ian Cox – Senior Regional Talent Manager.

Southern Vipers will provide financial support towards the running of the programme. This funding will provide match balls, umpires, scorers, ground hire and trophies.

Ian Cox, Senior Regional Talent Manager & Competition Director, said: “The ambition of the competition is to provide players of high potential, who are otherwise, not part of the elite domestic core squad for 2022, with the opportunity to take the next step on the performance ladder.

“At the conclusion of the competition, the best performing players will be rewarded by way of gaining selection to an August “Best of South Central” Festival.

“Three days of high-profile competitive cricket will be played out by the best 16-22 players from the competition at first class venues against competitive domestic and international opposition. We are very excited by what this new competition might bring.”

The tournament will be supported through the Southern Vipers social media channels and, where possible, matches will be live streamed.

Fixtures: