da betway： One of the rarest breed of contest in the cricketing world makes anappearance today
da betsson： Rick Eyre24-Jun-2001One of the rarest breed of contest in the cricketing world makes anappearance today. A four-day women’s Test match – the first anywhere in theworld for almost a year – gets under way at Shenley, as England meetAustralia in the first of two Tests in the CricInfo Women’s Series.This will be the first Test match that England have taken part in since theymet India in a one-off game on this same ground two years ago. ForAustralia, it’s the first Test since they visited England for a three-matchseries in 1998.It’s the first such game since Ireland and Pakistan – relative newcomers tothe women’s Test sphere – met in Dublin in August 2000, the Irish romping tovictory inside two days.More worrying for the ongoing health of the Test match as part of the women’sgame is the lack of such matches played in Australia and New Zealand -unquestionably the top two nations in women’s cricket – and the lack ofoutright results in recent years.You have to go back to February 1996 to find the last Test match played inAustralia. That was a one-off against New Zealand which was washed out after7.5 overs. Before that was the one-off Test against England at North Sydneyin February 1992, which Australia won by an innings.The last outright result in a women’s Test in England was reached in August1987, when Australia defeated the home side by an innings and 21 runs atWorcester. There have only been nine Tests played in England since that time,and they all finished in a draw. (England have scored two victories away fromhome since then, the most recent being a two-run defeat of India atJamshedpur in November 1995).The reasons for the lack of Test cricket for women are varied. Clearly thefocus in the international game is on one-day international cricket and thefour-yearly World Cup. England’s current rebuilding of their national team,for example, is being done not with a focus on winning the Ashes Trophy orbeing the number one Test nation, but one having a squad which will becompetitive in the 2005 World Cup.There is very little competition below international level involving games ofmore than the standard 50-overs-a-side one-day variety. While clubcompetitions in Australia do include two-day matches, these have come undercriticism as being slow and unattractive, dour struggles for first inningspoints.There is no domestic competition at state or county level anywhere in theworld that involves matches of more than one day in duration, and this makesthe jump from one or two-day cricket to the four-day game even more difficultwhen Test time comes around. Remarkably, Australia’s buildup to today’s FirstTest consisted of three one-day matches, including two games (at differentgrounds) against the ECB Development Squad. Would it not have been morebeneficial to both parties to arrange the schedule so that the teams played atwo-day game instead?A lot of it, of course, comes down to money and sponsorship. Women’s cricketis in a sporting backwater when it comes to corporate sponsorship andfinancial assistance, and this is a serious inhibiting factor when it comesto international sides meeting one another.This is not to overlook those companies who are putting their support intothe women’s game. In the instance of the current England-Australia series,this includes the Commonwealth Bank of Australia as the sponsors of thetourists, Vodafone with the home side, and CricInfo – producers of this website – as event sponsors of this series, following on their sponsorshipof the 2000 World Cup and the Indian World Cup selection trials last year.The Test match that commences today will see Australia as very strongfavourites. If one-day form is anything to go by (and that is all we haveover the past three years), then Australia’s track record is almostimpeccable. Impeccable, that is, until their heartbreaking four-run loss toNew Zealand in the World Cup Final last December.Nine of the players from that final are in the touring party in England, andall can be expected to take their place in the starting eleven today. ZoeGoss has been dropped, probably for the last time, while Jo Broadbent, whoplayed in New Zealand but missed the World Cup final, has retired. Broadbentscored an even 200 against England in the Guildford Test of 1998.Belinda Clark and Lisa Keightley form arguably the greatest opening battingpartnership in the history of the women’s game, while Karen Rolton was adevastating all-rounder at the 2000 CricInfo Women’s World Cup. CathrynFitzpatrick, Charlie Mason and Therese McGregor make up a formidablepace/seam trio, while leg-spinner Olivia Magno has been in fine form at thestart of the current tour, taking ten wickets, with a best of 6/34, in thethree warmup matches.Eight of the current Australian touring team appeared in the three-Testseries in England in 1998. When you consider that Belinda Clark, with nineTests in ten years, is the most experienced of them at Test level, then itbecomes more apparent just how rare women’s Test cricket really is.On the other side of the ledger, England are climbing back after probablytheir worst slump since women’s international cricket began in 1934. A dismalfifth placing in the World Cup and a long string of other losses, including ahumiliating tour of Australia eighteen months ago, has seen most of theformer management team swept away along with several of the older players.England are being coached this season by former Test wicketkeeper JanePowell, with former Australian coach John Harmer set to take over afterwards.A young England lineup, led by 24 year-old Clare Connor, sees opening bowlerClare Taylor as the only player in the squad more than thirty years of age.No less than five of the fourteen-player squad are in their teens. OnlyConnor, Taylor, Jane Cassar, Lucy Pearson and Sarah Collyer remain from theteam that played in the 1998 Test series against Australia.Two major losses from the England lineup are those of Charlotte Edwards andBarbara Daniels. Opening batsman Edwards has been forced to miss the 2001international season because of a knee operation, while 36 year-old Daniels,England’s best batsman in last year’s World Cup, has retired after findingherself unwanted in the national squad for this year. While it may well makesense to leave her out of a one-day squad focussed on a World Cup four yearshence, her omission from Test consideration creates a hole in the Englandbatting lineup for the current two-Test series that will be hard to fill.It would be a major upset for England to even come close to Australia in thistwo-Test series, for which the “Ashes Trophy” will be up for grabs. The bigquestion will be, however, whether four days will be enough to achieve aresult. The gulf between the two teams is, however, much wider than it was in1998, when the three-Test series was drawn 0-0. I predict Australia to winthe series 1-0.The First Test in the CricInfo Women’s Series between England and Australiastarts at Denis Compton Oval, Shenley today, and is scheduled to conclude onWednesday June 27. Three one-day internationals, also under the CricInfoWomen’s Series banner, will be played on June 29 (Derby), July 2(Northampton) and July 3 (Lord’s), with the Second and final Test to beplayed at Headingley from July 6-9.
