One of the rarest breed of contest in the cricketing world makes an
appearance today. A four-day women's Test match - the first anywhere in the
world for almost a year - gets under way at Shenley, as England meet
Australia in the first of two Tests in the CricInfo Women's Series.
This will be the first Test match that England have taken part in since they
met India in a one-off game on this same ground two years ago. For
Australia, it's the first Test since they visited England for a three-match
series in 1998.
It's the first such game since Ireland and Pakistan - relative newcomers to
the women's Test sphere - met in Dublin in August 2000, the Irish romping to
victory inside two days.
More worrying for the ongoing health of the Test match as part of the women's
game is the lack of such matches played in Australia and New Zealand -
unquestionably the top two nations in women's cricket - and the lack of
outright results in recent years.
You have to go back to February 1996 to find the last Test match played in
Australia. That was a one-off against New Zealand which was washed out after
7.5 overs. Before that was the one-off Test against England at North Sydney
in February 1992, which Australia won by an innings.
The last outright result in a women's Test in England was reached in August
1987, when Australia defeated the home side by an innings and 21 runs at
Worcester. There have only been nine Tests played in England since that time,
and they all finished in a draw. (England have scored two victories away from
home since then, the most recent being a two-run defeat of India at
Jamshedpur in November 1995).
The reasons for the lack of Test cricket for women are varied. Clearly the
focus in the international game is on one-day international cricket and the
four-yearly World Cup. England's current rebuilding of their national team,
for example, is being done not with a focus on winning the Ashes Trophy or
being the number one Test nation, but one having a squad which will be
competitive in the 2005 World Cup.
There is very little competition below international level involving games of
more than the standard 50-overs-a-side one-day variety. While club
competitions in Australia do include two-day matches, these have come under
criticism as being slow and unattractive, dour struggles for first innings
points.
There is no domestic competition at state or county level anywhere in the
world that involves matches of more than one day in duration, and this makes
the jump from one or two-day cricket to the four-day game even more difficult
when Test time comes around. Remarkably, Australia's buildup to today's First
Test consisted of three one-day matches, including two games (at different
grounds) against the ECB Development Squad. Would it not have been more
beneficial to both parties to arrange the schedule so that the teams played a
two-day game instead?
A lot of it, of course, comes down to money and sponsorship. Women's cricket
is in a sporting backwater when it comes to corporate sponsorship and
financial assistance, and this is a serious inhibiting factor when it comes
to international sides meeting one another.
This is not to overlook those companies who are putting their support into
the women's game. In the instance of the current England-Australia series,
this includes the Commonwealth Bank of Australia as the sponsors of the
tourists, Vodafone with the home side, and CricInfo - producers of this website - as event sponsors of this series, following on their sponsorship
of the 2000 World Cup and the Indian World Cup selection trials last year.
The Test match that commences today will see Australia as very strong
favourites. If one-day form is anything to go by (and that is all we have
over the past three years), then Australia's track record is almost
impeccable. Impeccable, that is, until their heartbreaking four-run loss to
New Zealand in the World Cup Final last December.
Nine of the players from that final are in the touring party in England, and
all can be expected to take their place in the starting eleven today. Zoe
Goss has been dropped, probably for the last time, while Jo Broadbent, who
played in New Zealand but missed the World Cup final, has retired. Broadbent
scored an even 200 against England in the Guildford Test of 1998.
Belinda Clark and Lisa Keightley form arguably the greatest opening batting
partnership in the history of the women's game, while Karen Rolton was a
devastating all-rounder at the 2000 CricInfo Women's World Cup. Cathryn
Fitzpatrick, Charlie Mason and Therese McGregor make up a formidable
pace/seam trio, while leg-spinner Olivia Magno has been in fine form at the
start of the current tour, taking ten wickets, with a best of 6/34, in the
three warmup matches.
Eight of the current Australian touring team appeared in the three-Test
series in England in 1998. When you consider that Belinda Clark, with nine
Tests in ten years, is the most experienced of them at Test level, then it
becomes more apparent just how rare women's Test cricket really is.
On the other side of the ledger, England are climbing back after probably
their worst slump since women's international cricket began in 1934. A dismal
fifth placing in the World Cup and a long string of other losses, including a
humiliating tour of Australia eighteen months ago, has seen most of the
former management team swept away along with several of the older players.
England are being coached this season by former Test wicketkeeper Jane
Powell, with former Australian coach John Harmer set to take over afterwards.
A young England lineup, led by 24 year-old Clare Connor, sees opening bowler
Clare Taylor as the only player in the squad more than thirty years of age.
No less than five of the fourteen-player squad are in their teens. Only
Connor, Taylor, Jane Cassar, Lucy Pearson and Sarah Collyer remain from the
team that played in the 1998 Test series against Australia.
Two major losses from the England lineup are those of Charlotte Edwards and
Barbara Daniels. Opening batsman Edwards has been forced to miss the 2001
international season because of a knee operation, while 36 year-old Daniels,
England's best batsman in last year's World Cup, has retired after finding
herself unwanted in the national squad for this year. While it may well make
sense to leave her out of a one-day squad focussed on a World Cup four years
hence, her omission from Test consideration creates a hole in the England
batting lineup for the current two-Test series that will be hard to fill.
It would be a major upset for England to even come close to Australia in this
two-Test series, for which the "Ashes Trophy" will be up for grabs. The big
question will be, however, whether four days will be enough to achieve a
result. The gulf between the two teams is, however, much wider than it was in
1998, when the three-Test series was drawn 0-0. I predict Australia to win
the series 1-0.
The First Test in the CricInfo Women's Series between England and Australia
starts at Denis Compton Oval, Shenley today, and is scheduled to conclude on
Wednesday June 27. Three one-day internationals, also under the CricInfo
Women's Series banner, will be played on June 29 (Derby), July 2
(Northampton) and July 3 (Lord's), with the Second and final Test to be
played at Headingley from July 6-9.