Test matches in Women’s cricket have been very sporadic as the scheduling is very irregular with the teams mostly playing one-off Tests against each other. Former Australian skipper Meg Lanning has suggested to completely scraping off Women’s Test matches rather than continuing to have them scheduled sporadically. The red-ball cricket is much rarer in Women’s cricket than in Men’s. There have been only 12 Women’s Test matches in the last decade.
“It’s really difficult to prepare for a Test match,” Meg Lanning said. “In my career, we were playing once every two years. It takes us two days to work out how to play it again, and then the Test is over. If you really want the games to be a good contest and more nations to play and players to understand the game a little bit more, I think we probably need to play more. Or you go the other way and you don’t play any at all and you focus on the short-format stuff.”
In December, the unfamiliarity of the format was laid bare for the all-conquering Australian women’s team as they were thumped by eight wickets in a one-off Test against India in Mumbai. Australia will be hosting South Africa for a Test match at the WACA Ground in Perth in mid-February to round out the multi-format tour against the Proteas. It will be Australia’s third Test in the past 12 months but Meg Lanning still feels that the red-ball cricket will suffer if they are scheduled only as an afterthought to the white-ball series.
Meg Lanning Only Played Six Test Matches In Her Career
Meg Lanning announced her retirement from international cricket in November 2023 after making 241 appearances for her country across formats. However, only six of those came in Test matches. Lanning’s comments came after new Australia captain Alyssa Healy called for a three-match Test series to be introduced into the women’s game after the defeat against India.
Five out of six Test matches for Meg Lanning were against England but the 31-year-old has been heartened to see South Africa and India have been keen to participate in recent years. “That’s great if that means there can be more Tests in the calendar, I think that’ll happen over time,” she said. “But that’s where I sit on it. It’s either more or you sort of don’t go there at all because I think once every so often is pretty difficult as a player.”
Cricket Australia chief executive Nick Hockley later said he was a “strong advocate” for more women’s Tests to be played. The last time any sides met for a Test series was when England hosted India for two matches in 2006, but not since 1998 has a three-Test series been played.
Test cricket in the Women’s arena has been absent because of financial issues and lack of popularity. Moreover, the competition between teams in red-ball cricket is very low as only four Teams are currently active in the Women’s Test. Women’s Test matches may go extinct soon.
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