Was Canberra Ashes Test the Best in Women’s Cricket History?

We have just witnessed one of the best test matches ever. This thrilling encounter ended in a draw however began the endless messages and tweets on social media for more test matches to be played in Women’s cricket.

 

 

From fans to active cricketers, everyone was watching and heavily invested in the match till the very last ball was bowled. The last day had a viewership combined average audience (not including streaming numbers) of 360,000 on the Seven Network and Foxtel (and a peak average of 437,000 for the final session), more than double the fourth-day numbers from October’s Test against India and higher than the opening Ashes T20 earlier this month, which was played in prime time.

This exciting test match has drawn the attention of cricket enthusiasts to take notice of women’s tests matches. This test match proved that the Women’s Test can be just as entertaining as any other test match.

 

 

Unfortunately, this was the only test match that had been planned for Women’s Cricket for 2022. In the ICC calendar, there are no more test matches scheduled for women’s cricket (as on 30th January 2022). In comparison, in men’s cricket 6 matches have already been played in January 2022 itself. Even in the past few years, there were hardly any test matches being played in Women’s cricket. There were 2 test matches played in 2021, none in 2020, and only one in 2019.

There need to be more test matches played in Women’s cricket. It is the purest form of cricket and highly respected too as it shows the most level of skill, patience, grit, strength and talent.

 

 

Women Cricketers have repeatedly talked about enjoying the longest form of the game and wanting to play more of them. Hopefully, this match between England and Australia will be a proof that Women’s test cricket has a lot of potentials and encourage the respective cricket boards to plan more matches for their team. This match will certainly bring viewership too as the audiences experienced the thrill in the match and were glued to their seats.

The test match between Australia and England was a glorious advertisement for Women’s test cricket and will be instrumental to bring a positive change in the perception of Women’s test cricket.