England need one draw to retain Ashes

England's men may have won and lost the Ashes in just 16 months, but the women have a much better chance to retain theirs - after being awarded just one Test for their upcoming tour Down Under in February.

Both England men and women won the Ashes at the same time, in September 2005, but the men's team soon had the smiles wiped off their faces by a resurgent Australia who whitewashed them 5-0 last December.

Australia's women will need to show exactly the same kind of determination (and more; roughly a third of women's Tests are draws) to win their one-off Test. They certainly have it in them, but the isolated match may not prove a draw for spectators if England choose defence as the best form of attack.

The Test, on February 15, will be played at the Bradman Oval, in Bowral, New South Wales, to kick-start year-long celebrations of the 100th anniversary of Sir Don Bradman's birth. Bowral is where Bradman grew up.

Five one-dayers will precede the Test - Australia won the last one-day series in England - and they will be played in Sydney and Melbourne. With New South Wales hosting the women's World Cup in 2009, it makes sense for the Test and three of the one-dayers to be scheduled in the state. The opening two games will be played at the MCG (the first time Australia have played there in nearly six years), and the final two at the SCG (the first time in more than eight years), while the middle one will be at the Drummoyne Oval in Sydney.

The series will begin with one Twenty20, on February 1, at a yet-to-be-determined venue. England will warm up with three matches against Australia Under-21 at the end of January. Again, the venues of those matches have not yet been decided.

Michael Brown, the acting CEO of Cricket Australia, said the tour would provide Australia's younger players with good opportunities to prove their skills ahead of the 2009 World Cup in New South Wales. "The arrival of England's women's team at the end of January will add another element to an exciting summer of cricket," Brown said. "Recent matches between Australia and England have been extremely close. The Southern Stars are hungry for the challenge."