Sapphires, previously known as V Team, were an English women's

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

team that competed in the

Super Fours The Super Fours was a women's limited overs cricket competition which was played annually in England between 2002 and 2013, with a break in 2009 and 2010. Designed to bring together the leading 48 players in English women's cricket, it originall ...

. The squad varied from season to season, but was made up of some of the top players in English cricket. They were captained by various

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

players, such as

Clare Taylor Clare Elizabeth Taylor (born 22 May 1965) is an English sportswoman, the first woman to have played on a World Cup team in both cricket and association football, football. She represented England at both cricket, as a member of the winning 199 ...

Laura Newton Laura Kelly Newton (born Macleod, 27 November 1977) is an English former cricketer who played as a right-handed batter and off break bowler. She appeared in 13 Test matches, 73 WODIs and 3 WT20Is games for the English women's cricket team. S ...

and Heather Knight. They won seven Super Fours titles in their history: three 50-over tournaments and four

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single inn ...

tournaments.

History

2002–2005: V Team

The

was established in 2002 as a way of bridging the gap between women's county cricket and international cricket, bringing together the top players in

. V Team was one of the teams established, and was captained by

. They finished 3rd in the first 50 over tournament that took place, winning 3 out of 6 games. After finished 4th in 2003, V Team quickly became a strong side in the Super Fours, winning both the 50 over and the newly-established Twenty20 tournament in 2004. They won the Twenty20 tournament again a year later in 2005, going unbeaten to top the group.

2006–2013: Sapphires

In 2006 the team was renamed Sapphires and continued their form, winning their second 50 over title, with batter

Claire Taylor Samantha Claire Taylor (born 25 September 1975) is a former cricketer who represented England more than 150 times between 1998 and 2011. A top order batter,In women's cricket, "batsman" is commonly used, alongside "batter". Taylor was the f ...

finishing the season as leading run-scorer. They claimed another 50 over title in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, as well as two more Twenty20 titles, in 2011 and

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

. Sapphires therefore ended the Super Fours as the most successful side, with 7 titles.

History

2002–2005: V Team

2006–2013: Sapphires

Seasons

Super Fours

Super Fours Twenty20

References