England celebrate during the 2023 Ashest Test

England men’s and women’s 2025 summer schedule was announced today (August 22), and will feature a chaotic mix of five different nations touring the country over five months. Right at the bottom of the press release though, was news that didn’t concern next summer’s schedule at all.

The final bullet point let us know that India women would not only tour for ODIs and T20Is in 2025, but would return in 2026 for a marquee women’s Test at Lord’s. The meaning of the inclusion of that news was two-fold.

Firstly, it’s long been a point of contention that England women have never played a Test match at Lord’s, unlike their male counterparts who generally play there twice a year. However, on both occasions England women have played at Lord’s over the last two years, they’ve attracted significant crowds - over 20,000 for the Ashes T20I in 2023. Confirmation of breaking one of the records that preserves Lord’s as a venue for predominantly men’s cricket is big news, and reason to celebrate.

But secondly, that news felt like it was put in there as a concession. There will be no women’s Test match in the 2025 summer, instead a West Indies white-ball series will accompany the India tour before the international summer is once again wrapped-up in July. By the time we get to that Test match at Lord’s, there will have been no women’s Test match in England for three years.

Women’s Tests have always felt isolated. There is no women’s first-class domestic structure in England, even with the ECB’s Project Darwin restructure, and only India have any form of women’s red-ball structure below international level. In 2022, Greg Barclay, the independent chair of the ICC, said that women’s Tests “would not be part of the landscape moving forward to any real extent”.

That leaves boards in a tricky position. Players have been vocal about wanting to play more Test cricket at every opportunity they have. If Test cricket is billed as the pinnacle, not giving women access to that is problematic for the expansion of the women’s game, without explicitly stating that Test cricket isn’t viewed as the goal.

Equally, other boards have responded to this by scheduling in more Test matches. India played both England and Australia at home in 2023, and recently hosted South Africa. Those Tests mean India have played more Test cricket in the last four years than they did in the preceding 17. South Africa will play their first Test on home soil in 22 years when they host England this December, and that will be their third Test match of 2024. By the time they host the Ashes Test in January, Australia will have played four Tests in two years, two of which will have been at home.

The key to staying ahead of the pack in the women’s game over the last 10 years was investing in professionalism and franchise leagues, which England managed to stay in touch with, albeit with a heavy concession to Australia. Regardless of whether Test matches do play a substantial part of the future of the women’s game, it would probably be prudent to at least keep up with the rest.

Last year, the ECB billed the Trent Bridge Ashes Test as a marquee moment for the women’s game. It happened two days after the first match of the men’s Ashes series as part of the double Ashes-to-Ashes campaign, and was scheduled for five days, instead of the usual four. That it was given that allotted time ensured it ended in a result, another point of contention for women’s Tests. It also brought in encouraging crowds to Trent Bridge, 23,117 a record for a women’s Test in England. However, rather than building on that success, that Test has become an isolated event, not the springboard it could have been.

In the ECB’s defence, there are factors outside of their control which have hindered the scheduling of more women’s Tests in England. It was reported earlier this year that the ECB was keen to schedule a Test match against New Zealand as part of their tour this summer. However, the New Zealand Cricket board turned down the offer in order to play as much white-ball cricket as possible ahead of the T20 World Cup.

A statement from the ECB given today read: “We’ve said previously there would be a women’s Test at Lord’s by 2026, so we’re pleased to confirm this today. We had already planned an eight-match white ball series against India for 2025, including a match at Lord’s, and there wasn’t opportunity to add a Test match to that, so we are excited about hosting it in 2026. There’s already a women’s Test match confirmed for 2027 at Headingley in the Ashes. We’re committed to continuing the rapid growth of the women’s game, and white ball cricket is a huge driver of that as we’ve seen through the attendances for England Women over the past couple of years.”

Lord’s is an in-demand Test ground and, although it’s hosting one fewer Test match in 2025 than it did this year, it’s largely plausible that a Test against India at that venue next year wasn’t feasible in the schedule. It doesn’t address, however, whether a Test at any venue could’ve been arranged against the West Indies, with India scheduled for Lord’s the following summer.

While the West Indies haven’t played a women’s Test since 2004, the ECB were willing to break New Zealand’s similar duck last summer. That would also rely on the West Indies Cricket Board being amenable to playing a women’s Test.

Regardless of the inner workings of scheduling and conversations between boards, the upshot is that England women won’t play a home Test match for three years. A Test match at Lord’s will surely be a huge landmark, but if it’s another isolated event it risks becoming a meaningless one-off - a show of progress without any substance. Whichever way it’s sold, the lack of Test cricket only hurts English cricket, and doesn’t grow the women’s game.

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