ACS Women's International Cricket Year Book 2026

7 First-class tournaments for the Bangladesh Women’s Cricket League took place in 2022/23 (2 day) and 2024/25 (3 day), although only two games per team were played in the latter due to international commitments, so it appears the tournament was not completed. In men’s cricket the Bangladesh Cricket Board persuaded ICC to rank the Dhaka Premier Division as their List A tournament from 2013/14 because there was no List A tournament between the divisional sides who play in the First-Class tournament. There has been a Dhaka Women’s Premier League since 2015 (and an earlier Women’s Club League with similar teams back to 2009) but these are not ranked as List A because there is a domestic women’s 50 over tournament at Division level and it is felt the number of clubs in the Dhaka Premier League means the standard of the lesser teams is not sufficient quality. ENGLAND The Women’s Cricket Association was formed in 1926. Before 1980 almost all women’s domestic matches were one-day declaration games whether one or two innings per side, and so are unranked. Regional sides played touring sides in two-day games from 1937 which are regarded as first-class, and when there were no tourists there were annual two-day fixtures for representative local sides against the Rest, mostly at The Oval until 1965, and then on other grounds up to 1985. In 1972 these matches were limited overs games because of the World Cup the following year, when limited overs games were played by counties and regions concurrently with the Cup, and these are ranked as they were not warm-up games but proper tour matches. No domestic first-class matches have taken place since 1985 except for the Territorial Tournament in 1991. The Women’s Area Championship (for individual counties or regional county groupings) started in 1980 (List A) and until 1982 comprised four area leagues with each winning county playing in the semi-finals. The tournament was not played in 1983 or 1984, but was reinstated as a straight knock-out in 1985. In 1986 the format was changed to all counties playing at one location, Harrow School in 1986, but thereafter Cambridge except 1993 at Wellingborough. In 1997 the tournament was renamed as the County Championship with three divisions with promotion and relegation. A couple of the stronger counties also fielded second XIs. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) took over the running of women’s cricket in 1998 but the tournament structure remained unchanged. There were two divisions only in 2004 but it reverted to three from 2005 when earlier season matches were played all over the country culminating in three days at a central location. In 2008 the Championship was extended to five divisions with the bottom division split into regions, and it continued on a similar basis, with the number of divisions changing, until 2019. All matches in all divisions have been ranked as List A. The ECB did not organise any List A county cricket after 2019 until 2024 when the County Championship returned but in four regional groups with no play-off matches. In the interim period there were some locally organised regional county matches but as these were not run by the ECB they have not been ranked as List A. The ECB instituted a county Twenty20 competition in 2009, played on a regional basis with divisions, and a finals day introduced for the Division One winners from 2010 to 2013. The county T20 continued even as the new events mentioned below were introduced. All matches have been ranked as Twenty20 even though the competition was not considered by the ECB to be at the same level of professional cricket introduced by the franchise teams. The Kia Super League, an eight-team T20 franchise tournament, ran from 2016 to 2019, before being replaced as the ECB’s flagship event by the 100-ball competition with different franchises aligned with the men’s teams introduced for The Hundred. The start of The Hundred competition was delayed by a year until 2021 because of Covid. Matches in The Hundred are included with Twenty20 stats as it is effectively a 20 five-ball over competition. The previous Kia Super League teams also continued to play for the Charlotte Edwards Cup (T20) and Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Trophy (List A).