KSL A Success But Still Room To Improve...

Alison Mitchell looks at how far the KSL has come, and what it can still do to improve over the coming years

- Alison Mitchell

The timing of this year’s Kia Super League could not have been better,coming hot off the back of England’s victorious home World Cup campaign. The knockon effect of the sell-out Final at Lord’s was reflected in the crowd numbers for the second edition of the domestic Twenty20 tournament: average attendance was up by a third on last year’s figure of 1,379, with more than 20,000 having gone to a ground to watch a game. Finals Day at Hove was supported by a crowd of 3,500.

These numbers are dwarfed when compared to the World Cup Final attendance, but are astonishing when you consider this is domestic women’s cricket in the UK. Before the advent of the KSL the domestic game had no profile. In fact even now, the women’s 50-over competition and County Championship are barely promoted, publicised or watched (Lancashire won both, by the way). If you go to the County section of the ECB’s own website, the only women’s competition listed is the KSL.

The KSL is being used as the shop window and the driver for the women’s domestic game. The evidence of edition two is that it is successfully building on last year. Before this season began, Director of England Women’s Cricket at the ECB, Clare Connor, stated that she was hoping for a 30-40 per cent increase in average attendance. It happened. Nearly double the number of sixes were hit (80) compared to last year (46), and the tournament saw its first centuries from New Zealanders Suzie Bates (Southern Vipers) and Rachel Priest (Western Storm). Priest also smashed a 21-ball fifty.