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The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has today (8th October) launched its action plan to transform women’s and girls’ cricket with the fundamental goal of making cricket a gender-balanced sport.

Transforming women’s and girls’ cricket is one of six priorities within ECB’s ‘Inspiring Generations’ strategy for 2020-2024. An unprecedented £20m of funding will be invested over the next two years, with an ambition of investing £50m over the five years, to enable organisations across the cricket network to recruit more dedicated resources, improve the player experience, and increase the opportunities to build careers in the sport.

Another ground-breaking commitment is the funding of 40 full-time professional, domestic contracts. These contracts will be in addition to the existing England Women Centrally Contracted players.

The comprehensive ten-point action plan aims to transform all elements of women’s and girls’ cricket in England and Wales to increase engagement, grow representation and improve opportunities across the game. The plan focuses on five key objectives:

• Participation: To increase the number of women and girls playing cricket recreationally
• Pathway: To develop aspiring female cricketers (U11-17) as players and people
• Performance: To drive the performance of England women’s cricket through a new semi-professional, eight region structure
• Profile: To elevate the profile of women’s cricket through The Hundred, the England Women’s team and the elite game
• People: To increase the representation of women across the cricket workforce

The plan was produced following two years of consultation with all 38 Counties and Cricket Wales, and detailed analysis of thousands of survey responses from the recreational and elite game.

To test some of the recommendations for the recreational game, ECB has run pilot programmes with over 600 cricket clubs to better understand the essential criteria in creating the most sustainable women’s and girls’ clubs.

Speaking about the new plan, ECB Managing Director, Women’s Cricket, Clare Connor said: “Cricket has been an integral part of my life, as a player and in my role of Managing Director of Women’s Cricket. I have never been more excited by the opportunity in front of us right now.

“Recent initiatives have given women and girls more opportunities to play, such as All Stars Cricket for 5-8-year-olds, the South Asian female activators programme, and the Kia Super League for our most talented domestic cricketers. But to truly transform women’s and girls’ cricket, we must now move from targeted standalone programmes to addressing the whole pathway as one.

“We have an amazing opportunity to make cricket the sport we want it to be – a sport that is modern, innovative and inclusive. I have been so heartened by the level of enthusiasm, commitment and support for this plan from everyone involved in cricket.”

ECB Chief Executive Officer, Tom Harrison, added: “During the development of Inspiring Generations, and extensive conversations and research across the game, the strong appetite to transform cricket’s relationship with women and girls was abundantly clear.

“There is tremendous energy across the cricket network to pursue the game’s largest growth opportunity and to increase the number of women and girls playing, watching and volunteering at every level of the game.

“This plan, formed in collaboration with the whole cricket network, and supported by our commercial and media partners, represents a crucial step in achieving our ambition of making cricket a gender balanced sport.”

England Women’s Captain, Heather Knight added: “This action plan is a really exciting next step in the continued growth of women’s cricket. We need more young girls to be inspired to play and those young girls need to be able to see a clear pathway above them that encourages them to continue pursuing the game.

“As England players we’re fortunate enough to meet lots of young girls who love the game and it means so much to us to see how much they love cricket. Much of this plan is about normalising the game for women and girls and I’m excited to see how this increased opportunity takes the game forward.”

Essex County Cricket Club are pleased to announce that Feroze Khushi, Aron Nijjar, Shane Snater and Paul Walter have all signed contract extensions with the Club.

Khushi has been heavily involved with the Second XI over the last few years and has penned a one-year extension that will see him stay with the Club until the end of the 2020 season.

Nijjar has captained the Second XI this year and made his first appearance of the season for the First Team at Finals Day. The 25-year-old played in both the semi-final and final, taking 3 wickets as Simon Harmer’s side secured a maiden T20 title. Nijjar also featured a week later at Taunton as Essex went on to claim a second Specsavers County Championship title in three seasons. The left-arm spinner has signed a one-year contract extension and will remain with the Club until the end of the 2020 season.

Snater also featured for the Eagles in this year’s successful Vitality Blast campaign and took 4 wickets in the 5 matches he played. The Dutchman has also been away on international duty in 2019 and has signed a one-year extension seeing him through until the end of the 2020 season.

Walter has been a consistent performer for the Second XI over recent years and featured 11 times in the Vitality Blast campaign, averaging 26.33 with the bat. The 25-year-old has signed a two-year extension and will stay with the Club until the end of the 2021 campaign.

Head Coach Anthony McGrath is delighted that the players have committed their future to the Club, and said: “All four lads have talent and you can never have too many talented players in your side.

“Feroze has been exceptional with the bat for the Second XI this year and has scored well in every match I’ve seen him play. Everyone at the Club is excited about his potential and we feel he’ll be a big player for us for years to come.

“Aron has found game time hard to come by this year but when he’s been called upon, he’s been excellent. He played a huge role for us at Finals Day and was important down at Taunton a week later. Hopefully he can transfer his Second XI form into the First Team in 2020.

“Shane is a skilled and trustworthy bowler and during the first half of our Vitality Blast campaign, he performed well. Hopefully he pushes on from here and can play more for us next season.

“Paul is a very gifted player and his ability with both bat and ball means he is an important member of our squad. At 25 he’s still young and has so much to offer this side, so it’s great news that he’s committed his future to the Club.”

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have today announced that former Essex Head Coach, Chris Silverwood, has been appointed the new England Men’s Head Coach.

Chris joined the Essex coaching staff in 2010, developing the likes of Tymal Mills, Reece Topley and Tom Westley, who have all since represented the full England team. During his time at Essex, Chris worked closely with the Club’s Academy and Performance Programme to oversee player development, which included the significant progression of current First Team players Jamie Porter, Dan Lawrence and Sam Cook.

Chris stepped up to become Head Coach in December 2015. He led the team to consecutive Specsavers County Championship titles, winning Division Two in 2016 and Division One in 2017, securing the Club’s first Championship title in 25 years.

Essex County Cricket Club Chairman, John Faragher, said: “The Club congratulates Chris on his appointment as the England Men’s Head Coach, this is a great honour for him and his family.

“In his time with Essex County Cricket Club, his outstanding leadership and interpersonal skills were a major factor in taking our cricket to the next level.

“Hopefully Chris can carry on this success with England and everyone at the Club would like wish him the best of luck in his new role.”

The final Members’ Forum of the year will take place next week on Monday 7 October, with your chance to hear from members of the Committee following our history-making season.

The Vitality Blast and Specsavers County Championship trophies will also be on display and there will be an opportunity before the event to have photos.

The Forum will begin at 6:30pm with the Doug Insole Pavilion open from 5:30pm for attendees to come and see the trophies and enjoy a drink.

Car parking is free of charge for all attendees and please note that the River Gate entrance is closed until further notice due to on-going groundwork.

Alternative routes into the ground are available, via New Writtle Street from New London Road or through Central Park.

Entry to the forum will be on the presentation of your Membership card.

England World Cup winning captains Eoin Morgan and England Women’s captain Heather Knight have officially been selected for the London Spirit men’s and women’s teams respectively.

Joining Morgan on the men’s team will be talented Essex batsman Dan Lawrence and England Test opener Rory Burns. The players were selected in the first stage of The Hundred Men’s Draft, which culminates live on Sky, on 20th October.

The women’s team has also picked their first players, each announcing two of the centrally contracted England Women players in the first stage of the Player Selection Process. Playing alongside Heather Knight on the women’s team will also be rising England star bowler Freya Davies.

FINAL LONDON SPIRIT PLAYER CONFIRMATIONS

• Men’s team: Rory Burns (England Men’s red ball central contract pick), Dan Lawrence, Eoin Morgan (Local Icons)
• Women’s team: Heather Knight and Freya Davies (England Women’s central contract picks)

The men’s team, based at Lord’s, will go head-to-head with stars from seven other teams in the competition, including England Test captain Joe Root – who has joined Trent Rockets – and England’s star bowler of the summer, Jofra Archer, for Southern Brave. London Spirit will also face England World Cup winners Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes as part of Birmingham Phoenix and all-rounder Ben Stokes in Northern Superchargers squad.

The women’s team, which will be playing at The Cloudfm County Ground in Chelmsford and The County Ground in Northampton, will face off against Anya Shrubsole – Knight’s vice-captain for England – who is playing alongside Danni Wyatt at Southern Brave. Nat Sciver will join Trent Rockets, alongside Katherine Brunt, and Manchester Originals welcome Sophie Ecclestone, the ICC’s Emerging Player of the Year for 2018.

Simon Harmer’s whirlwind year continued on Wednesday evening as he picked up the PCA Specsavers County Championship Player of the Year award at the annual PCA Awards evening, held at the Roundhouse in London.

Harmy was also named as captain of the PCA’s Greene King Team of the Year, as well as being one of the 4 nominees for the main NatWest PCA Players’ Player of the Year, which was won by Ben Stokes.

The South African off-spinner has enjoyed a trophy-laden week following the Vitality Blast and Specsavers County Championship trophy wins, picking up three awards at the Club’s End of Season Gala Dinner on Friday night, including the DeVines Player of the Year award.

This continued with the Cricket Writers’ Club Championship Player of the Year, PCA MVP Award (pictured below) and PCA’s September Player of the Month accolades!

Simon Harmer has been named as the winner of the Cricket Writers’ Club’s County Championship Player of the Year Award for 2019, presented in association with William Hill.

Harmer, 30, enjoyed a brilliant season, with his spin bowling being a major factor in Essex securing their second Specsavers County Championship Division One title in three years.

The South African off-break bowler bagged 83 Division One wickets at an average of 18.29. This even surpassed his tally of 72 wickets collected in 2017 when Essex ended a 25-year search for the County Championship crown.

Harmer took five wickets in an innings on ten occasions in 2019. Perhaps his most remarkable match was against Hampshire in June when he claimed 12 wickets for just 61 runs as Essex surged to an emphatic victory inside two days. He also contributed with the bat, making two Championship fifties.

Harmer was also a key cog in Essex’s first domestic T20 success. Captaining the side, it was fitting that he hit the winning runs as the Eagles landed the ‘Blast’ title with a thrilling last-ball victory over Worcestershire at Edgbaston.

He received the County Championship Player of the Year award today at the Cricket Writers’ Club’s annual lunch, attended by almost 250 guests at the Marriott Grosvenor Square hotel in central London.

Harmer said: “It’s been a great last month of the season, and a wonderful season for Essex. It’s difficult to pick out one particular highlight. Obviously, Blast Finals Day was an extremely exciting occasion and everything fell into place for us at Edgbaston – it was great to win the Vitality Blast for the first time.

“Then, down at Somerset in the last and decisive County Championship match of the season, I think we got ourselves into a little bit of trouble trying to play out a draw on that pitch. In the end, it was the relief of finally lifting the trophy at the culmination of such a great season that was a real highlight! Very many thanks to everyone who voted for me to win this Award.”

Aron Nijjar has the photographic evidence as proof of the most memorable week in his cricket career. There he is, second left, spraying champagne, in both the Vitality Blast and Specsavers County Championship celebration shots.

Then, to round off seven glorious days, he is snapped, suited and booted, with Sir Alastair Cook’s arm draped around his shoulder at Essex’s End of Season Gala Dinner after receiving the 2nd XI Player of the Year award.

For all that, the slow left-arm spinner might still be considered an interloper at the Essex double-winning parties. After all, it was four years almost to the day since his previous Championship outing, and his appearances at Edgbaston on Finals Day were only the second and third of his T20 career.

But this is Essex: no one is an outsider, and Nijjar said: “We’ve got a very tight-knit squad, so everyone is very close in terms of the celebrations, whether you’ve played all the games or not. Everyone gets stuck in.

“Everyone’s truly happy for each other and how well they’ve done. But it was nice to be involved, to have contributed to the wins and been part of the celebrations.”

“Yes, it has been a long time coming. We’ve signed [Ashar] Zaidi, who’s come and gone since then, and [Simon] Harmer, so it has been tough to get in the side when we’ve been playing with one spinner. But the wicket at Somerset [for the Championship decider] was conducive to spin, so it was slightly easier to get in.”

Nijjar’s call-up to the climax of the T20 campaign was pretty straightforward, too, once Adam Zampa was required at home by Cricket Australia.

“With Zampa going, and the fact we wanted to keep the same sort of formula, it was clear we’d be needing two spinners. I had an inkling I might play the way the wicket played in the first semi-final [Nottinghamshire v Worcestershire]. Again it was a wicket that was conducive to spin.

“I was quite nervous and anxious beforehand, but once I got into the swing of things it was all right. You don’t have too much time to be nervous with everything that’s going on. It was just really nice to get on the board early with a wicket and build my way into that first game and set myself up for the final.”

Nijjar took 3 for 26 against Derbyshire Falcons in the semi-final. His Twitter feed carries further evidence of his contribution with film of him bowling danger man Wayne Madsen around his legs with a beauty. He may have gone wicketless in the final, but bowled tightly enough to help deliver the title.

Two days later it was a no-brainer for Essex to pick him on the spin-friendly pitch at Taunton, with Nijjar saying: “It was one of those wickets that was going to turn the longer the game went on. And as you could see from how hard we had to battle with the bat, I’m sure it would have been lovely to have bowled on.”

Despite 17 of the 21 wickets falling to spin in the match, Nijjar bowled just 28 balls. However, he did mark his 25th birthday with the key wicket of Roelof van der Merwe, bowled trying to reverse sweep, just when the South African looked set to take the initiative away from Essex.

Nijjar’s 2nd XI award was hard-earned. He claimed more than 90 wickets across all formats, including 32 in the Championship and a 10-wicket haul in a friendly against Middlesex three weeks ago. To underline his all-round potential, he also posted a half-century in the same game.

Nijjar added: “It’s been a long time since I played for the First Team, but I think it’s testament to myself that I’ve kept my professionalism and tried to work hard and improve my game. I’ve reaped the rewards when my opportunity has come. Obviously, I’d like more playing time, but I hope I’ve shown I can perform at that level and I can force my way into the team next season on a more regular basis.”

The 2019 Overall MVP Simon Harmer captains this season’s Greene King Team of the Year, which has been selected using the PCA’s purpose-built Most Valuable Player Rankings.

The team of star performers contains three of the nominees for the NatWest PCA Players’ Player of the Year, in the form of Harmer, Dom Sibley and Ryan Higgins. One of the trio could be in line to receive the headline prize at tomorrow’s 50th NatWest PCA Awards ceremony.

Eight counties are represented, with six players coming from Division One of the Specsavers County Championship and five from Division Two. Six of the team helped their side to either gain promotion or win a trophy this year.

Selected ahead of the last round of County Championship fixtures via the MVP formula, the balanced team consists of the best performing individuals on the county circuit across all formats. Batting, bowling and fielding points were taken into consideration as well as MVP points-per-game to create the ultimate domestic team of 2019.

Dom Sibley:

• 335 Overall MVP points
• Nominated for NatWest PCA Players’ Player and PCA Young Player of the Year
• Most runs in the County Championship with 1,324
• Top batsman in Championship MVP
• Received first England Test call up

Billy Godleman:

• 413 Overall MVP points
• Highest ranked specialist batsman in Overall MVP
• Most Overall batting points with 368
• Finished in top 10 of Overall, Championship, Blast MVP Rankings
• 1,982 runs across all formats

Tom Banton:

• 357 Overall MVP points
• August PCA Player of the Month
• 1,003 white ball runs including maiden List A and T20 hundreds
• Helped Somerset to Royal London One-Day Cup title
• Called up to England T20I squad

Wayne Madsen:

• 391 Overall MVP points
• 7th in Vitality Blast MVP
• 1,664 runs in all competitions
• Averaged 46 in the Blast
• 8 fifties in all formats

Sam Hain:

• 348 Overall MVP points
• Averaged 51.37 in the Championship
• Warwickshire’s top run-scorer in both limited overs formats
• Career best List A score of 161 not out
• 1,666 runs in all formats

Ryan Higgins:

• 484 Overall MVP points
• Fifth in Overall MVP
• Nominated for NatWest PCA Players’ Player of the Year
• 958 runs and 50 wickets in Championship
• Helped Gloucestershire to promotion

Dane Vilas (Wicket-keeper):

• 406 Overall MVP points
• Highest ranked keeper
• 90 fielding MVP points
• Highest score of the season with 266
• Captained Division Two-winning Lancashire

Lewis Gregory:

• 464 Overall MVP points
• 17.86 points-per-game (ranked 2nd)
• 51 Championship wickets at 15.76
• Four five-wicket hauls
• Helped Somerset win Royal London One-Day Cup

Simon Harmer (Captain):

• 2019 Overall MVP winner with 609 points
• 2019 Championship MVP winner
• MVP in semi-final and final of Vitality Blast
• Nominated for NatWest PCA Players’ Player of the Year
• 100 wickets to lead Essex to Championship and Blast double

Kyle Abbott:

• 542 Overall MVP points
• Second in Overall MVP
• 71 Championship wickets at 15.73
• Best first-class match figures of 17-86 since 1956
• Six five-wicket hauls

Ben Sanderson:

• 363 Overall MVP points
• 85 wickets in all formats
• Most bowling points in Div 2
• Bowling average under 20 in Championship and Blast
• Helped Northants to promotion

The MVP formula was designed by the PCA in conjunction with the players to identify the key influencers and top performers in any given game.

On top of points for runs and wickets, bonus points are awarded, for example, for scoring runs quickly, claiming top order wickets and taking catches in the field, amongst other important disciplines.

The algorithm therefore provides a more rigorous analysis of player performance than traditional batting or bowling averages do. The Overall MVP at the end of every season is rewarded with a £10,000 cash prize.