Kolkata: A World Test Championship for women? Is it too early for the International Cricket Council (ICC) to plan such an event? Former Indian captain Anju Jain opined ICC should actually start planning one for women soon. After all Test cricket is a player’s ultimate test.
“Why not? I think everybody has been fighting for the longer format for a long time and finally, it has started,” Jain told Sportslight Media in an exclusive interaction. The Indian women returned to whites after seven long years against England earlier this month and forced a draw on the final day.
Making a comeback to the international circuit after five years and making her Test debut, allrounder Sneh Rana, after a splendid show with the ball, hit an unbeaten 80 to save India the blushes. Batting at No.8, Rana also paired up with wicketkeeper Taniya Bhatia (44 not out) stitching 104 runs for the ninth wicket.
“One can see that Test matches aren’t boring any more and the last match between India women and England women was pretty interesting. It was so close to getting a result,” said the former wicketkeeper who also coached India and Bangladesh.
India will play another Test against Australia this year in September. “I feel that this Test match and the one in Australia is the beginning of having a three format bilateral series,” India women’s ODI captain Mithali Raj said earlier.
“It opens channels for another format in a bilateral series, it increases the standard of women’s cricket. All cricketers want to play the longer format, it’s good to have it. Maybe in the coming years, it might also lead to a World Test Championship. You never know, this is just the beginning.”
Interestingly, in the last decade, only eight women’s Test matches were played. While India played two of them (vs South Africa and England) both in 2014, all the remaining matches were between Australia and England.
In fact, the last time New Zealand women played a Test was back in 2004. The likes Sri Lanka, Pakistan and West Indies also stopped playing Test cricket decades ago. One of the reasons cricketing boards dish out nowadays is the negative commercial value of women’s Test cricket.
Along with the ICC, these cricketing boards bank on the shorter format (T20Is) of the game which is easier to sell among masses because of the excitement and shorter time period that brings with it.
Truly, women’s Tests are also not economically viable compared the ODIs and T20Is. “Tests aren’t in our plans for the women at the moment. Variety of reasons including financial and major ICC tournaments, etc,” a New Zealand cricket spokesperson told this website when asked if they have any plans in the coming days.
Jain believed that ICC should give equal emphasis on women’s Test cricket too as countless players globally want to play in whites. “I know there are a lot of debates going on about the shorter format just to make the women’s cricket more popular. But I think equal emphasis needs be given to women’s Test cricket because that’s the actual cricket. I think ICC should definitely look into that,” she added.
Everything comes with planning, and if ICC starts planning now, the results will definitely show up in the coming one or two years. Not only will it helps players across the globe but at the same time, a women’s World Test Championship will also put in front the varying cricketing talents who have yearned to play Tests all their life.
“That will very much help women’s cricket as a whole. We all know that the shorter formats are good and they make the game popular but Test cricket is where a player actually develops her skills and other stuff which definitely helps them to transform and play into the shorter formats. So I definitely feel these youngsters should play longer formats especially the current batch of Shafali Verma and others,” Jain concluded.
