Middlesex Cricket can confirm today that they will bid to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to become one of eight counties to field a professional women's first-class team from 2025.
The women's game is set to undergo its biggest evolution since 2020 with the birth of Sunrisers, the elite women's team for the London and East region, who will play in the elite women's regional format from its inception in 2021 with Middlesex as the host county.
The growth and development of Sunrisers, most recently under the leadership of head coach Andy Tennant, has been exceptional, culminating in a fourth place finish in the 2023 Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, twice beating eventual winners Southern Vipers and narrowly missing out on a place in the knockout stages of the competition.
Historically, Middlesex Cricket has a long and proud history of women's cricket in the county. The first recorded Middlesex Women's match took place in 1935.
The introduction of the first ever List A Women's County Area Championship in 1980 saw Middlesex Women crowned champions in their inaugural year - a title was defended the following year and won again four years later.
Our record of producing players for the women's international game is something of which we are justifiably proud. A long line of England internationals have proudly gone on from representing Middlesex to playing for England.
The club's vision for the future is to run two professional sides, Middlesex Men and Middlesex Women, in parallel at the highest level of the game, focusing on achieving success in both the men's and women's game and developing the vibrant women's and girls' game that already exists in the county - a set-up that now sees over 150 teams competing regularly.
Women's and Girls' Player Pathway received a huge boost last week when the Club secured the freehold of GSK's Swyncombe Avenue Sports Ground - a venue that will become the home of our future development plans for the Women's and Girls' Pathway, enabling to create a clear pathway from the recreational to the professional game.
With the bid fully supported by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), Middlesex Cricket believes it is well-placed to align itself with the ECB's vision to make cricket the most vibrant, exciting and robust professional women's team sport in England and Wales.