About Us

Central Sparks is a sporting centre of excellence for high-performance, professional cricketers, featuring the best female players from the West Midlands region covering Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

As one of eight regional hubs, Central Sparks, led by former England player Laura MacLeod, will provide a basis for player development encouraging international success whilst also delivering a performance programme at Academy and Emerging Player level.

“Our purpose is to prepare players for the big stage, to grow and thrive as cricketers and as people. We also want those who follow us to be inspired to go on their own personal journey of improvement so that we create a community of flying Sparks!”
Laura MacLeod
Director of West Midlands Women’s Cricket

The team competed in the new ECB Women’s Elite Domestic structure, fittingly named the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy and finished second in the North Group, narrowly missing out on reaching the Final against Southern Vipers at Edgbaston to Northern Diamonds.

The structure was unveiled in October 2019 as part of the ECB’s ten-point action plan for transforming Women’s and Girls’ Cricket with the fundamental goal of making cricket a gender-balanced sport.

The 2020 season featured 50 over matches (with T20 matches to be included from 2021). The Sparks were spearheaded by exciting pace prospect Issy Wong, home grown opening bat Marie Kelly and all-rounder Evelyn Jones, who was voted in by her teammates as Captain.

The programme will focus on delivering a powerful brand of cricket to entertain the local community, whilst delivering professionalism, excellence and the opportunity to help players and administrators develop to be the best they can be and inspire a future generation of women’s cricketers in the UK.

For more updates, follow our journey on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.