Connor on KSL – ready for the unknown

As we count down to the start of the Kia Super League, Director of England Women's Cricket Clare Connor share her thoughts on what is going to be an exciting and entertaining inaugural competition.

A remarkable and brilliant rollercoaster ride – a year of intensive planning, ups and downs and lessons learned – and now the Kia Super League stage is set.

Southern Vipers and Western Storm, two brand new sporting entities representing exciting joint ventures in English cricket, will play their first ever fixtures on Sunday in Southampton and Taunton, against Surrey Stars and Lancashire Thunder respectively. But before that, on Saturday afternoon at one of cricket’s oldest venues, Headingley will welcome a new Yorkshire team, the Diamonds. And the Kia Super League will be underway.

With just one more sleep until the first ball is bowled, the excitement within the offices of the ECB is tangible. And after our launch party in Manchester last week, attended by players from these shores and overseas, members of the media, our sponsors Kia and our terrific managers of the Kia Super League teams, it feels as if that excitement is widespread. It’s a new venture, a competition built entirely from scratch. It has required new ways of working, it’s created new team identities and new squads of players.

World-class players   

Some of the world’s best players have joined their teams to entertain us over the next three weeks – the likes of Ellyse Perry at Loughborough Lightning, ICC Women’s World Twenty20 winners Deandra Dottin and Hayley Matthews at Lancashire Thunder, and Suzie Bates, Wisden’s choice as the best female cricketer in the world in 2015, alongside our own legend Charlotte Edwards with Southern Vipers at the Ageas Bowl.

What an exciting prospect for our own England players – led by new captain Heather Knight, who will be returning to her Devon roots to lead Western Storm. The chance to test themselves against the best in the world in an intense three weeks of competition at some of our country’s most historic grounds: Headingley, Emirates Old Trafford and the Kia Oval.

And that was one of our driving forces behind the concept. We wanted to create a competition that would underpin the future strength of the England team – especially with the privilege and huge opportunity that lies ahead in hosting the ICC Women’s World Cup in the summer of 2017. The tournament will obviously expose more of our players than ever before to a higher level of competition. We’ll really see who’s got what it takes to push our current England squad for places; we’ll see who relishes the challenge and thrives under pressure.

I think this is what excites me most – thinking what it must feel like for a young player like Cordelia Griffith at Surrey Stars or Ellie Threlkeld at Lancashire Thunder as they prepare for some of the biggest games of their lives, playing with and against players that they will have admired growing up. When I think back to when I started playing (there’s no need to say exactly when that was!), how exciting would it have been to be able to play in a competition like this?

And for those aspiring players in particular, it’s about more than just the three weeks of competition. The teams are all in camp at the moment, training and playing practice games in preparation for the serious business that starts at the weekend so it will end up being a period of five or six weeks that will give them a taste of what it feels like to be a full-time cricketer.

They’re based in some of the best facilities in the country – for example Western Storm is a joint venture between old county rivals Gloucestershire and Somerset, but which also involves the University of Exeter. And Loughborough Lightning earned their spot in the Kia Super League because of their strong history in the women’s game, but also because of the strength of their high performance environment.

Strong partnership   

We’re delighted to have Kia on board as title sponsors. We’ve built a strong relationship with them through the partnership with the England women’s team over the last couple of years, and they’ve seen the value and the potential of this new competition. This serves to give us further confidence in what we’re creating.

And of course we are thrilled that the BBC will deliver live ball-by-ball radio commentary of seven of the group fixtures, in addition to broadcasting live from Finals Day. Meanwhile, Sky Sports are in the throes of producing a “behind-the-scenes” programme, which will cover the story of this summer’s Kia Super League from inception through to Finals Day on Sunday 21 August.  

Finals Day will be held at Chelmsford, where Essex have been such great hosts for international women’s cricket over the years. Hopefully we can play our part in making that a bumper weekend of T20 action for cricket lovers, after Edgbaston stages the NatWest Blast Finals Day on Saturday 20 August.

Time for cricket   

We’re stepping in to the unknown but we feel ready. The talking, thinking, planning and preparation is complete. We’ve had huge support from the Kia Super League host management teams throughout, especially in recent weeks getting their players and their participation initiatives out into their communities to promote this new venture, and now we’re all chomping at the bit to see some brilliant cricket played.

I hope the cricketing public, and the public in general, will see this competition as a bold step for our sport and join us for the ride, starting this weekend in Leeds, Southampton and Taunton.  We’re smashing some exciting new boundaries for women’s cricket – and it should be a lot of fun.

The Kia Super League stage is set.