Is women's Test cricket struggling for relevance?
It is the eternal question facing women's Test cricket: how do you improve at something that you hardly ever get the chance to do? Before
It is the eternal question facing women's Test cricket: how do you improve at something that you hardly ever get the chance to do? Before the start of every Test both captains are asked about how special it is to play the format and whether they would like to do so more often. It is a tiring yet necessary ritual for both players and press, considering the scarcity of these matches. And the answer is almost always the same: yes, we would love to play more Tests, but we're not sure how the schedule allows it.
England's one-off match against India, the first women's Test to be played at Lord's after 150 for the men, was a week of mixed emotions. It was historic and emotional, its significance felt from the beginning of day one when past England players from the amateur era filled the pavilion and rang the bell five minutes before play to honour their contributions to the game's position now. There was also a record crowd for a women's Test of 37,846 across the game. But its timing also made it feel like an afterthought, plonked into the calendar between the Women's T20 World Cup and The Hundred.
It is indicative of the chaos of cricket's schedule that this was probably still the least disruptive option. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) point to this game being a recommendation of the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) report in 2023. England's squad was unusual, with key players rested because of the focus on said World Cup, and they had only two or three days after the final to train with the red ball. Since the multi-format Ashes was first introduced in 2013, most women's Tests have been played as part of those series and worth a certain amount of points alongside white-ball games, but being a one-off Test left this one scrambling for relevance outside its historical context.
With the ever-growing influence of T20s, and an increasing gap in financial opportunities to fund the game professionally, where do women's Tests fit in?
The BriefWire