In terms of crowds, England women have enjoyed a record-breaking summer with attendance records throughout the T20 World Cup and during the Lord’s Test, but both have been fighting against the football World Cup, men’s Tests and Wimbledon in the wider sporting world.
They were even competing directly against the men’s cricket side on Saturday, who played a T20 against India at 14:30 BST. BBC Sport understands this was a broadcast request.
Then, on day three of the Test, mere hours after former captain Heather Knight’s retirement had made the headlines, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced that men’s head coach Brendon McCullum had been sacked as Test coach.
“I just think it’s a bit of a shame,” former England spinner Alex Hartley told BBC Test Match Special on Sunday.
“The ECB say ‘we treat everything equally’ – but it’s taken too long for them to play here.
“Fifty years later, we’re playing in our first Test match and the headlines are completely taken away from it now.
“This game is done in the fact that England aren’t going to win, but there’s a Test match to save, it’s an historic moment within itself. There’s a [men’s] ODI series starting Tuesday, I completely understand that they want to get the news out before then, but I’m sorry, if you say that you respect the game and you want the game to improve then don’t just pay it lip service, actually prove it and say ‘we’ll hang on to this news until Tuesday morning’ or seven o’clock on Monday night.”
ECB chief executive Richard Gould told the BBC that there had been consideration about the announcement coming during the women’s Test and referenced an “extraordinary” T20 World Cup campaign where “the women’s game in England is stronger than it’s ever been”.
England’s players have little time to dwell on the Test defeat, much like with the World Cup, as they immediately turn their attention to The Hundred which starts on 21 July.
The ECB’s franchise tournament has played a huge part in the growth of women’s cricket in the country since its inception in 2021, attracting healthy crowds during the summer holidays and being played in double-headers alongside the men’s games.
And that is the reality, that short-format cricket is the money-maker in the women’s game. The disparity between India, Australia, England and the rest in terms of finances makes it understandable to see why those other boards would want to host Test cricket at such a big financial loss.
“My opinion is that you’ll see fewer countries playing Test cricket, but the quality and the jeopardy of those Test matches will be more,” Todd Greenberg, CEO of Cricket Australia, told BBC Sport.
“We have to get comfortable with that. Women’s cricket has got the greatest opportunity to transform the game and to bring new people in to watch it – we saw that recently with the World Cup.
“I’d be less focused on them playing Test cricket and for them to play the format that generates the most eyeballs, the most commercial returns so we can put that back into the game.”
Additional reporting by Timothy Abraham.
