Women’s cricket Brown worried what the future holds for Storm
GLOUCESTERSHIRE chief executive Will Brown fears Western Storm’s identity is being placed under threat by new changes proposed by the England and Wales Cricket Board. This summer’s women’s Kia Super League is being played out against a backdrop of uncertainty following the ECB’s unveiling of a new 100-ball vision for the game. The advent of the new format could spell the end of the domestic T20 competition and see Western Storm switch their home games from Taunton and Bristol to Cardiff. Glamorgan won the franchise to stage 100-ball matches and if, as seems likely, the women’s game mirrors the men’s, Western Storm players and officials face an uncertain future. Deeply committed to the women’s game, Gloucestershire chief Brown is understanda- bly concerned by these latest developments. He said: “We believe Somerset and Gloucestershire have done a good job in delivering KSL Western Storm matches and that we’ve put more into that team than just about any other county out there. “The prospect of that then going to a third party in the form of Glamorgan to be run out of Cardiff is worrying. “Do they then change the brand we’ve spent time building, do they risk the loyalty that has been forged and what is going to happen to the Western Storm staff? “We’ve worked very, very hard to build a team with local people and that could now all change. It’s a concern and that’s why there is so much uncertainty in women’s cricket right now. “We don’t know whether they will simply follow the men’s model or do what’s best for women’s cricket, and it’s incredibly unsettling.” Looking at the bigger picture, Brown believes the adoption of the 100-ball format at the expense of T20 could prove detrimental to the women’s game in this country. Without the Kia League, the women face the prospect of no domestic T20, even though the format is considered to be ‘the product’ for the women’s game. Brown explained: “At the moment, the men play four-day cricket, they play 50-over cricket and they play T20 cricket. They are playing three formats that are replicated on the international stage. “They will then play the 100-ball competition as something different, an entry-level format designed to excite people. “At the moment, the top women players in this country are engaged in T20 cricket. If you take that away and play 100-ball instead, how on earth are you going to prepare our best women to play international cricket? “You will be asking them to play a domestic format that doesn’t even exist on the international stage, and that is a major worry of mine. It’s easy to say ‘let’s focus on the 100 and get this competition going without worrying about what’s going on in the rest of the world.’ That’s a nonsense - you have to look at the men’s and women’s game in equal measure.