By Joe Mansfield.
THE CARDIFF based franchise’s men’s team have retained Johnny Bairstow, Tom Banton and Ben Duckett and have also added England starlet Ollie Pope to their ranks.
The women’s team have also announced a couple of high-profile players in the form of Sophie Luff and Katie George. The international pairing will be joined by Natasha Wraith, Lauren Filer, Georgia Hennessey and Alex Griffiths.
The competitions inaugural season has been earmarked as a flagship event for accelerating the progress of the women’s game. The calibre of the teams and the exposure the players receive will hopefully take the sport into uncharted territory.
The purpose of the new competition and format is to commercialise domestic cricket in England and Wales so that it can compete with the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the Australian Big Bash League (BBL). The restructuring of the county system for the competition sees Glamorgan CCC join forces with Somerset CCC and Gloucestershire CCC to form the Welsh Fire.
The competition was scheduled to have it’s opening season in 2020 but was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The teams have the option to retain as many or as little players as they desire from the squad they selected in 2020. The deadline for clubs to announce their full list of retained players is the 4th of February.
Fans of the newly formed Welsh franchise will be watching with bated breath to see if the world-renowned Australian duo of Steve Smith and Mitchell Starc are retained before the window closes.
