Glamorgan and Wiltshire form Talent Pathway partnership as part of new Women’s County structure

Throughout 2024, details have emerged from the ECB regarding the new women’s domestic structure. This structure will be launched in full in 2025 and can be read about here: https://www.ecb.co.uk/news/4060616/the-ecb-confirm-the-formation-of-tier-2-and-tier-3-in-womens-domestic-structure.

The new structure will see increased investment going into the Women’s county game and as part of this there will be a significant focus on developing the girls’ pathways that underpin and feed professional women’s county cricket.

Earlier this year, Wiltshire Cricket shared a statement regarding the new Women’s structure in which we outlined that we had been one of nine national counties that had applied for Tier 2 status within the new structure. As was communicated in this statement, the decision was ultimately taken by the ECB that all national counties would instead be invited to form the new Tier 3. Based on our track record of success within girls’ pathway cricket in recent years, this was of course disappointing as we still believe that as an ambitious county we could have competed within a Tier 2 environment. However, since the communication from ECB our focus has shifted towards ensuring that:

1. Tier 3 Cricket represents a competitive and compelling level of Cricket for county women’s cricketers from national counties
2. That we can provide a girls’ pathway that works closely with a Tier 1 county to ensure that girls from Wiltshire have access to the same opportunities to progress in to tier 1 cricket in the future

On point 2, we are delighted to share that in recent weeks Wiltshire Cricket has been working closely with Glamorgan County Cricket Club to establish the details of a really exciting girls’ talent pathway partnership that will begin from this winter.

Glamorgan CCC’s county women will be initially competing in Tier 2 from 2025 but will become a Tier 1 county in 2027. However, in anticipation of becoming a Tier 1 county in two years’ time, Glamorgan CCC will receive funding to deliver a Tier 1 standard pathway and academy programme from 2025. As part of this, Wiltshire will form part of the talent pathway catchment area that will align to Glamorgan CCC as the tier 1 county in our “area”. In recent weeks, we have been developing what this will mean for the Wiltshire Cricket girls’ pathway and are delighted to confirm that from this winter onwards there will be:

• A NEW jointly delivered Glamorgan – Wiltshire Emerging Player Programme (EPP) in Wiltshire – The Emerging Player Programme is a programme that sits above county age group cricket; providing specialist coaching along with other support services such as strength and conditioning, sports psychology and much more. The new EPP programme will be based in Wiltshire but under the direction and guidance of Glamorgan CCC. Delivering on the programme will be a combination of Glamorgan and Wiltshire coaches and to supplement the programme provided in Wiltshire, there will also be other opportunities that Wiltshire’s EPP girls will be able to benefit from outside of the county. Not only is the confirmation of a new EPP in Wiltshire a fantastic example of the developing partnership with Glamorgan CCC but it also represents the first ever girls EPP that will have been based in Wiltshire.

 In addition to the new EPP that will begin from this winter, Wiltshire Cricket is also looking forward to working closely with Glamorgan CCC in the months and years to come to ensure that our broader girls pathway aligns closely to Glamorgan’s. This will include developing consistent approaches to talent identification and ensuring that that within our girls’ pathway programmes, we are delivering content that aligns to the competencies that Glamorgan would be looking for in their future county cricketers.

Speaking about the new partnership with Glamorgan, Wiltshire Cricket Managing Director, Pete Sykes, said: “We have been delighted with the progress made in our conversations with Glamorgan CCC in recent weeks and have been hugely impressed with, and appreciative of, the desire from Glamorgan to provide programmes in Wiltshire that will ensure that our girls have access to exactly the same opportunities as if they were based in a Tier 1 county. The launch of a new EPP is a hugely significant moment for us with it being the first in county programme that we will have delivered. To have the presence of both Glamorgan and Wiltshire coaches on this programme will also be a great embodiment of the partnership working between the two counties. On this note, the Wiltshire girls’ pathway will very much retain its own identity as we go forwards, however we are also very excited about adapting our programmes to ensure that they align to the frameworks that Glamorgan will be developing. We want to ensure that we can continue to build upon the great progress we have made with our girls’ pathway in recent years so that we are providing the best opportunities for Wiltshire girls to progress within the new girls and women’s structure.”

From a Glamorgan perspective, Aimee Rees, Head of Women and Girls Cricket, said: “The Glamorgan team are really excited to be working with Wiltshire who have a number of very talented cricketers. This is the result of the hard work Wiltshire have put into their talent pathway over previous years and I am confident that the new structure will allow young girls across Glamorgan and Wiltshire to access an elite pathway which will help them to realise their dreams of becoming professional cricketers. There has never been a better time to be a female cricketer and the next two years are really exciting as we work hard to prepare for professional cricket. I am passionate about producing many cricketers from the associated counties to represent Glamorgan in 2027.”

As mentioned above, as well as developing our girls’ pathway within the new domestic structure, we are also committed to ensuring that Wiltshire’s county women’s players receive the most competitive and compelling offer as possible within the new Tier 3 level of the structure. As we speak, the final details of what Tier 3 Cricket will look are being worked on by ECB and as soon as those details have been confirmed we will be in touch to share with our county women and girls. However, what we are excited by is the increased investment that we will be receiving to deliver the Tier 3 county women’s structure. We believe that this will provide us with the opportunity to deliver both an enhanced coaching programme in the winter and an improved match day experience for our players in the summer. More information to follow!