The six team hosts for this summer's inaugural Women's Cricket Super League "have been announced," according to the BBC.
The south "will have three teams, with one based at The Oval with Surrey, who have pipped a joint bid by Middlesex and the MCC for the one London spot."
There "will also be a team based in the south west, and another in Hampshire."
The north "will have two sides, in Lancashire and Yorkshire, while the Midlands team for the Twenty20 league will be at Loughborough University."
All six hosts have been awarded hosting rights for a four-year period from '16-19 for the tournament "which will be played in a Twenty20 format this season, before adding a 50-over competition in the future." England & Wales Cricket Board CEO Tom Harrison said, "This is a key day in the creation of the Women's Cricket Super League. The bidding process for obtaining the hosts was competitive from the outset" (BBC, 1/14). The PA reported the idea of the WCSL began gaining momentum last year, with ECB Dir of England Women's Cricket Clare Connor "confirming there had been nearly 30 expressions of interest since the initial announcement." Connor said that the competition would run from July 30 to Aug. 14 and -- much like the men's T20 Blast -- "a finals day would be set up to determine the winner."
While expressing the belief that the WCSL would be a "fresh chapter for the sport," Connor added, "We have already started the player allocation process and expect to have final squads by Easter" (PA, 1/14).
