In my previous post, I suggested that the traditional county system is not the right foundation upon which to build a future for women's cricket in England.
So... what is?
My dream is to see an elite, franchise-based competition, based on the model of the Indian Premier League.
The good news is that we already have a prototype of just such a competition in England - it is called the Super 4s - a (semi) annual tournament, contested by four teams drawn from the best players in England, with the occasional non-English player thrown into the mix too.
The S4s currently acts as more of a boot-camp for the national team than anything else; but evolving it into something more like the IPL would be an obvious next step, starting down the road of building the connections and loyalties between the teams and the fans which the game in England needs to drive itself forwards both commercially and on the field.
UPDATE:
In a post on Twitter, Martin Davies suggests keeping the county system, but reducing the number of teams to as few as 6.
This is, in effect, the same solution I am proposing; but with different team names.
However, I do think this is an important difference - the county team names carry baggage which inhibits emotional connections as much as it promotes them: I am never going to support a team called 'Kent'... but I might support one called 'The Southern Death Stars'. (Or... er... something.... I'm not good with names!)
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