Vitality Blast and Metro Bank One Day Cup Align With Women’s Game 

Men’s and women’s professional domestic T20 and 50-over competitions will be fully aligned for the first time next season in further steps to fuel the growth and reach of women’s professional cricket.

The move will see men’s and women’s teams competing side by side in the Vitality Blast and the Metro Bank One Day Cup from the 2025 season.

The eight women’s Tier One professional county teams will compete in the Vitality Blast women’s competition and Metro Bank One Day Cup women’s competition, played alongside the Vitality Blast men’s competition and Metro Bank One Day Cup men’s competition.

The development comes in collaboration with ECB’s partners, health and life insurer Vitality and Metro Bank, as they continue to work with the ECB to invest in, grow and support the women’s game, seeking to inspire many more women and girls to play and watch the game.

The aligning of the men’s and women’s competitions and the decision from Vitality and Metro Bank to further their ongoing support for women’s domestic cricket signifies the next step in the game’s evolving professionalism.

The new professional structure will see £8m new funding per year being invested into women’s domestic cricket by 2027 – taking annual investment in this area to c.£19m – and could produce an 80% increase in the number of professional female players in England and Wales by 2029.

Like the Vitality Blast Men’s Finals Day, the women’s competition will culminate in a Vitality Blast Women’s Finals Day, while the men’s and women’s Metro Bank One Day Cup competitions will each have two semi-finals and a flagship final.

Competition schedules and venues will be announced later this year, with the expectation that men’s and women’s double headers are likely to form some part of the aligned Vitality Blast schedule.

In addition, the eight women’s Tier One professional county teams have confirmed their names ahead of the new season.

In the Metro Bank One Day Cup the eight women’s teams will compete as: Durham, Essex, Hampshire, Lancashire, Somerset, Surrey, Warwickshire and The Blaze.

In the Vitality Blast the eight women’s teams will compete as: Birmingham Bears, Durham, Essex, Hampshire, Lancashire Thunder, Somerset, Surrey and The Blaze.

A knock-out cup competition consisting of teams from all three tiers of the expanded women’s domestic structure will also form part of the 2025 schedule. The aim of the cup competition is to provide all Counties with the opportunity to compete against each other, play at some of the country’s biggest venues, and give players across the pyramid the chance to test their skills on an elevated platform.