The first matches of the West Midlands Regional Cup will be played its this weekend in an exciting opportunity to bring more competitive inter-regional cricket and support the development of players in the West Midlands.
The competition – which has been created by Central Sparks - will be played out across the summer between five counties that sit in the West Midlands region.
Staffordshire, Warwickshire (in a consortium with Shropshire), Worcestershire and Wales will contest a round robin tournament that will see the winning county receive the West Midlands Regional Cup trophy. The competition will have a match-based points system to dictate the league table, as well as a bonus point system to ensure matches are competitive to the last ball.
The primary objective of the West Midlands Regional Cup is to allow players not involved in the Hundred to access competitive match play, as well as ensure county teams have the opportunity to play the longer format game.
Laura Macleod, Regional Director of Women’s Cricket for Central Sparks, said: “The West Midlands Cup was a jointly conceived idea to continue our efforts to provide meaningful competition for players across the West Midlands across the season. The short T20 County season is over in a blink of an eye, therefore to add a 50 over format to the schedule will improve and raise the standards of the region.”
“
Each county will play four 50-over matches, with the final taking place on 4th September at Moseley Cricket Club.
The fixtures are listed below, with all matches having an 11AM start time:
Sunday 17th July
Warwickshire vs Wales – Kenilworth Wardens Cricket Club
Worcestershire vs Staffordshire – Halesowen Cricket Club
Sunday 14th August
Staffordshire vs Wales – Aldridge Cricket Club
Warwickshire vs Worcestershire – Stratford-upon-Avon CC
Sunday 28th August
Staffordshire vs Warwickshire – Knypersley CC
Wales vs Worcestershire – Panteg Cricket Club
Sunday 4th September – Finals Day
1st vs 2nd
3rd vs 4th
Central Sparks will provide financial support towards the running of the programme, to assist with the cost of ground hire, umpires, scorers and catering. Sparks will also provide match balls throughout the competition as well as present the winning team with the West Midlands Regional Cup trophy.
Darren Franklin, Senior Regional Talent Manager, said: “The West Midlands Cup is a great opportunity for players within the West Midlands and Wales to showcase their skills and compete against each other in the longer format of the game. Central Sparks will be using the West Midlands Cup competition as an opportunity to further identify talent and continue to build a strong region."
The tournament will be live scored here and, where possible, matches will be live streamed on the Central Sparks YouTube channel.