Lauren Winfield-Hill, Sterre Kalis and Maddie Ward look ahead to joining Tier 1 with Yorkshire.
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Just 12 months into the new tiered system in the women’s domestic game, changes are already afoot as Yorkshire step up to the elite. Luke Reynolds speaks to three of their standout performers with two already having a taste of what is to come…
Wednesday 17 April 2024 will be a date that will go down in history as the ECB unveiled their long-term plan for the professionalisation of domestic women’s cricket within the Professional County Club set up, formerly known as First-Class Counties.
Eyebrows were raised as Yorkshire was omitted from the initial eight counties to join the top division as the game moved away from the regional model encompassing multiple counties. Instead, the impressive Durham bid secured the spot for the north-east region. However, following lobbying from the white rose county, a little over a month later, Yorkshire had confirmation they would join from 2026, sparking the club into action to recruit the best talent a year before their professionalisation.
With the then Northern Diamonds players caught in a cricketing quandary, the Headingley based outfit had players who wanted to remain in Leeds but retain their professional contracts. Many left for pastures new, including captain Hollie Armitage and leg-spinner Katie Levick who relocated up the A1 to test themselves immediately in the Tier 1 environment at Durham.
With minimum professional squad sizes of 15, starting senior salaries of £28,000 and impressive facilities and standards linked to their male counterparts, it was a gargantuan move for the women’s game which was widely lauded for its success come the end of its maiden summer.
Meanwhile, it was a transitional year for Yorkshire and despite their financial woes, their hierarchy made a commitment to the women’s game and managed to secure many experienced players such as Lauren Winfield-Hill, Sterre Kalis and Beth Langston to name three while exciting youngsters were retained such as Erin Thomas and Maddie Ward, despite competing in Tier 2 in 2025.
Winning the Metro Bank One Day Cup League 2 was vindication for the club which heavily invested in a professional infrastructure ahead of time, in an intriguing year that saw Kalis and Winfield-Hill spend time on loan in an unusual temporary move up the sporting pyramid, in Tier 1.
The top order batters and regular stand-in captain Ward take stock of the women’s game heading into 2026…
- IT’S BEEN AN EXCITING YET UNSTABLE FEW YEARS IN THE WOMEN’S GAME, HOW HAVE YOU FOUND THIS PERIOD?
- STERRE KALIS: I joined the Northern Diamonds in 2020 during the pandemic so there were only a few games that season, and everyone was on a pay-as-you-play contract. Throughout the years more and more contracts have been awarded allowing players to play cricket full-time. The growth has been tremendous. The stadiums we play in and the crowds we get is developing so quickly.
- LAUREN WINFIELD-HILL: We have tinkered with the structure so much in terms of teams, names and who looks after it, so I am just excited to have the one club ethos. I am looking forward to them leaving the structure alone and letting us crack on with representing our teams and build fan bases. That piece is so important, to let people in to watch the game.
- MADDIE WARD: I didn’t have much experience in the regional setup at a first[1]team level but I know the ones that have all agreed that transferring to the county setup has been beneficial in terms of getting people to come and watch. Even the crowds we have had in Tier 2 have been great and having that real connection with one club has been great.
- WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO STAY AT YORKSHIRE WHEN THEY MISSED OUT ON THE INITIAL TIER 1 SELECTION?
- SK: When we heard that Yorkshire was not going to be a Tier 1 team it was a shock to the system. Half of our team split up even though we didn’t deserve to since we had such a nice group. I could have left. However, I came here from the Netherlands in 2020, they were the Northern Diamonds back then and they made me feel welcomed from the very start. It’s my home away from home. I love playing there, I love playing at Headingley. I have also got a house in Leeds which played a big part in my decision since I didn’t want to move away from that. Then I said to myself that it is just one year so I am going to try and go on loan. If not, it is just 20 games of my career, I will still get good training because the setup was like a Tier 1 side.
- LWH: The minute we found out we weren’t going to be in Tier 1, but we will get the upgrade after a year, it allowed us to get the best staff we could and run the best programme. There were no corners cut whatsoever by the club which has been amazing. It has been business as usual. Nothing is going to change going forward apart from the status of being in Tier 1, the frequency of games and the actual standard of competition for the girls.
- MW: Tier 2 has been a blessing in disguise in terms of being able to create a group ready for Tier 1. We have been able to have a transitional year where we can get to know each other and play the brand of cricket we want to. We have had amazing backing from the club to be able to do that. The standard of Tier 2 hasn’t been bad at all. There are some really good players with experience and youth coming through.
- YOU BOTH PLAYED ON LOAN IN TIER 1 LAST SEASON ALONGSIDE YORKSHIRE COMMITMENTS, HOW DID YOU FIND THAT?
- SK: It was a hectic season. I really wanted to play for Yorkshire and be around the team since I love playing for them and being part of that squad. But ultimately, I also had to look at my own development. So, I spoke to my head coach and shared my thoughts. Both Yorkshire and Warwickshire were really flexible. I just wanted to play as much cricket as I could. So, I played for Bears two or three times a week and then in between, I travelled back to Yorkshire to train and play if the schedule did not clash. So, I think I played around 60 games including warm-ups, so it has been hectic and involved a lot of driving.
- LWH: What was really nice was that it was good to see that what we have been doing at Yorkshire in Tier 2 is not different to the Tier 1 structure. Going to Essex was great for me. It is a great club with some great people. The intensity of Tier 2 is different from Tier 1 so it was a perfect fit for me. No disrespect to Essex, but the resources and programmes run at Yorkshire are probably superior to that of Essex, just in the sense of them being a smaller club meaning the resources are different.
- HOW DO YOU VIEW THE NEW DIVISIONAL STRUCTURE OF THREE TIERS, AND THE ABILITY FOR PLAYERS TO MOVE UP AND DOWN IN A CLEAR PYRAMID?
- SK: Now you can drop down to Tier 2 which is still a good standard of cricket, you still play against good teams and those players improve the overall standards as well. It works really well because everyone can get game time and if you do well in Tier 2, you can obviously play in your Tier 1 team once again.
- LWH: The standard in Tier 2 is really good. There are really good players in there even though there is not much depth. When you look at some of the players that have come down from Tier 1 like Emma Jones and Abbey Freeborn, it is so much more beneficial for them to be playing in Tier 2 than it is for them to be carrying drinks and never play any cricket, so I think it is a really good thing, the Tiered structure just works. The ultimate goal is to get as many players playing cricket as possible and obviously clubs want to keep control of their players. It happens in the men’s game all the time.
- FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE, WHAT WILL BE THE BEST THINGS ABOUT BEING A FULL-TIME TIER 1 PLAYER?
- SK: The standards in Tier 1 are a lot better, especially when the England players are back you play really competitive cricket. You play at big grounds. When we play at home or away, we will play in bigger stadiums which will get a bigger crowd. We are really ready for it, and we have got a good winter now to reflect on a lot of things we need to be better at going into Tier 1. From March, Jess Jonassen and Sarah Glenn are joining our squad which is really exciting.
- MW: We will be exposed playing against some really high-quality players, players that we haven’t really played against including a lot of international cricketers and overseas players as well. When England players are involved, that only makes the standard of county cricket better. I am definitely looking forward to coming up against players I have not played against before, it will definitely be a challenge, but I have got no doubt that we are ready to combat all of that and show our skills on the pitch next year.
- WHAT ARE YOUR AIMS FOR 2026?
- SK: We are all excited to compete in Tier 1. It might just be our first year, but we are going to try our hardest to be competitive.
- LWH: Everybody wants to win the competition, but I think a more realistic goal would be finish mid-table. I look at our team on paper and I do get giddy thinking there is no reason why we cannot win it. It is always a natural thing to say but we need to not set our expectations too high. I honestly think that the team that we have got, adding Sarah Glenn into that, myself and Sterre Kalis are back full-time and Jess Jonassen. There is no reason why we cannot compete against the best. Whether it is too soon to say that we can win a competition, maybe. But I think we will do well. I certainly don’t see ourselves at the bottom of the pecking order at all. I think we might surprise a few people, but I still believe it’s a two-to-three-year project to get where we want to be, and I don’t think we will look like a team which has just been promoted like you see in football.
- MW: Rich Pyrah and the staff have created an unbelievable environment and we get on like a house on fire and that can only help us moving forward into Tier 1. It’s great to have such a good group of girls to play with and an amazing group of staff. I would really like to cement myself in the team next season. As a club, we have the ambition to win trophies. There’s no reason why we cannot go and take Tier 1 by storm. People probably look at us as underdogs, but I don’t think there’s any reason why we cannot have that success and that is definitely what we should be aiming for.
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