By Matt Hardy
England’s cricketers have been urged to use the Women’s Ashes to seize their moment and join their football and rugby counterparts in the national spotlight.
More than 80,000 fans are expected to pack into seven venues in six cities for this year’s Women’s Ashes, which starts with the solitary Test match at Trent Bridge today.
Ticket sales for the Test have seen a boost in recent days following the dramatic conclusion to the opening Test of the men’s Ashes on Tuesday, while a joint marketing campaign for both series against Australia together has also been credited with a boost.
Ashes, two Ashes
“In terms of scale and ticket sales and the venues that we’ve got the women’s matches being played in, it’s certainly going to be big,” Beth Barrett-Wild, director of the women’s professional game at the England and Wales Cricket Board, told City A.M.
“We’re seeing that through the Lionesses in football and also through the Red Roses in rugby and some of the amazing crowds that those two sports are getting. This is our moment.
“We can recognise the opportunity of putting the men and the women alongside each other – something that we learned from The Hundred – and how we can utilise the scale that exists in the men’s game and as leverage to catapult women’s cricket into the public consciousness.”
Fifth day?
The Women’s Ashes has a different format to the men’s. While the men play five Tests across six weeks, the women play one Test, three Twenty20s and three One-Day Internationals, using a points system to determine the winner.
For the first time in England, the women’s Test will be held over five days instead of the usual four, signifying a major change in mindset towards the longer format and its meaning in the women’s game.
“The players were [keen for a fifth Test day] off the back of the last one in Australia, which was an absolute thriller,” Barrett-Wild added.
“Our ambition is for cricket to be a gender balanced sport, where men and women are on that shared platform. It felt like the right thing to do.
“It felt like the right time given the professionalisation of the sport in this country. The players wanted it. Trent Bridge wanted it. It just felt like the obvious choice. So hopefully it is the right choice and people will come out.”
