Elliot Wilson has outlined the plans for the Worcestershire Women’s Rapids pathway and to develop even more players who will progress into regional cricket with Central Sparks.
Four Rapids players in Sarah Glenn, Emily Arlott, Chloe Hill and Clare Boycott were part of the senior Sparks squad during the 2021 campaign.
Four others in Ellie Anderson, Charis Pavely, Phoebe Chew and Hannah Hardwick were chosen for the Sparks inaugural Academy intake.
Wilson, Academy Director, said: “There are aspirations from Worcestershire to have an over-supply of players capable of playing for Central Sparks.
“Our challenge, and the club is committed to making a real effort towards improving our pathway, is to develop more players playing for Central Sparks, either in the senior squad or the Academy that come from this pathway.
“If we can achieve that over the next five years, and be a critical driving force in Central Sparks from not just how we support it as Worcestershire CCC but supporting it as a pathway with players, that will be of enormous relevance to the game of cricket.
“We represented it well, with four players in the Sparks senior squad and four in the pathway, and we hope we can carry on doing that moving forward.”
The Rapids were scheduled to play eight T20 matches in the ECB competition during the early part of this summer before the regional cricket involving the Sparks and seven other regions. However, four of them were washed out.
But Wilson is hoping another window can be found in 2022 for further county cricket, including the Rapids, to be played when The Hundred is taking place.
He said: “With the eight regional centres having come on board during the last two years, there was a lot of debate as to where women’s county cricket would end up.
“We played last year and this year as a pilot in conjunction with regional cricket, and that pilot will continue for two more years.
“After those two years, the ECB will decide what is the best way forward for women’s county cricket.
“The Women’s Rapids have got a real nice early season programme before regional cricket starts in which all the regional players play county cricket. We are in a group regionally with Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Shropshire.
“The recommendation from ourselves is when the Hundred competition is going on, and regional cricket is not being played, to put in another window of county cricket during that four weeks and fingers crossed we will be able to do that.
“Obviously, it will not feature the girls playing in the Hundred, but it will be an opportunity for the next tranche of girls players to play in full county cricket.”
