Women's Cricket Super League team names and playing schedule revealed
Friday 26 February 2016 17:18, UK
The England and Wales Cricket Board has announced the playing schedule and team names for the inaugural Women's Cricket Super League.
The league kicks off this summer and will feature 90 of the leading female players from England and across the world.
The six teams will be called Lancashire Thunder (Lancashire Cricket Board with partners), Loughborough Lightning (Loughborough University), Southern Vipers (Hampshire Cricket with partners), Surrey Stars (Surrey County Cricket Club), Western Storm (Somerset County Cricket Club, Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, University of Exeter) and Yorkshire Diamonds (Yorkshire County Cricket Club).
The teams will take part in a round-robin Twenty20 competition from Saturday July 30 to Sunday, August 14 with a finals day on Sunday, August 21 at Essex County Ground in Chelmsford.
At least 11 matches will be played at seven first-class venues - the Ageas Bowl (Southern Vipers), the Bristol County Ground and the Cooper Associates County Ground, Taunton (Western Storm), Emirates Old Trafford (Lancashire Thunder), Headingley (Yorkshire Diamonds), the Kia Oval (Surrey Stars) and the Essex County Ground (finals day).
The opening weekend of action will see Yorkshire Diamonds host Loughborough Lightning at Headingley on Saturday, July 30, followed on Sunday, July 31 by Southern Vipers taking on Surrey Stars at the Ageas Bowl, and Lancashire Thunder travelling to Taunton to play Western Storm.
ECB director of England women's cricket Clare Connor said: "This represents another huge step towards delivering our vision of creating a dynamic, inspirational and high quality domestic women's game in England.
"This time last year the Women's Cricket Super League was simply a concept, and now we have six exciting new teams, some innovative partnerships and a fixture list that includes at least 11 matches being played at seven different first-class grounds across the country.
"As each stage of the process unfolds, we keep striving to push new boundaries. We are now looking forward to working with the six teams over the next few weeks to reveal their kits, colours and brands, as well as the central competition logo and branding."
