Hindustan Times ST (Jaipur)

Tests: Few and very far between

The Indian women’s cricket team gears up to face England in a four-day Test for the first time since 2014

- Rasesh Mandani

MUMBAI: On March 8, the Indian cricket board announced a Test match (4 days) for the women’s team in England, starting June 16. Despite the gift-wrapped messaging—“on the occasion of #Internatio­nalwomensd­ay, I’m pleased to announce that #Teamindia @BCCIWOMEN will play a one-off Test match against @Ecb_cricket later this year...” tweeted BCCI secretary Jay Shah—there was no hiding the grim reality that for the women’s team, it will be a gap of six years and seven months between two Tests. In the same time span, Virat Kohli has played 62 Test matches for India. The women’s Test captain, Mithali Raj, who made her Test debut in 2002, has so far featured in only 10 Tests.

This history suggests that for the women’s team, Tests continue to be some kind of tokenism. On the other hand, India will be up against Heather Knight’s England, who compete in Test matches against Australia every year.

To be sure, outside of England and Australia, who play a women’s Ashes series, all other cricketing nations flounder when it comes to scheduling Tests for their women’s teams.

South Africa too haven’t played a Test in more than six years—their last match was the last one for India too, when they played each other in Mysore in 2014. New Zealand and West Indies haven’t played a Test since 2004. Sri Lanka played one, way back in 1998.

Though it could also be argued that the world’s richest cricket board, in the world’s most cricket-crazy nation, should do better to promote the women’s game.

“The problem we faced was that there were very few nations who were willing to play multiday format, except England and Australia,” said Saba Karim, BCCI’S general manager till last year. “The window was packed…one has to play the ODI World Cup qualifiers. So, one was looking to combine T20 and ODI matches on bilateral tours and most nations did not have days to spare for multi-day cricket.”

A formatting challenge

Test cricket has been a problem child for women’s cricket even before the Internatio­nal Women’s Cricket Council integrated with the Internatio­nal Cricket Council (ICC) in 2005. Lack of funding and popularity being the usual refrain. “When the Women’s Cricket Associatio­n of India (WCAI) merged with BCCI (in 2006), ICC had already begun to shift focus towards limited overs cricket,” said Shubhangi Kulkarni, former secretary of WCAI.

“No broadcaste­rs would queue up, there were no sponsors or spectators. We saw the huge crowds for the T20 World Cup final in 2020 at MCG and the 2017 ODI World Cup final at Lords. I am a purist and want Test cricket. But are we going to get those sorts of crowds in Test cricket?”

In a webinar organised by ICC last month, former Australia captain Belinda Clark made the same point. “Focus for the women’s game needs to continue on the shorter formats, T20 and 50-overs,” she said. “I say that because if our objective is to spread the game globally and grow depth in teams, you do need a focus and that focus needs to be directed at certain formats.” Women’s cricket will be making its Commonweal­th games debut in 2022 where they will play T20 cricket.

Players love Tests

But ask the players, and they want to play Test cricket.

“We absolutely want it. We played back-to-back Test matches in 2014 and won both of them. Some of us thought, we would be having Test matches regularly,” said Punam Raut, who scored a winning hundred in the last Test against South Africa. “But for some reason, it never happened.”

Raut was one amongst eight debutants who played in the first of those two Tests in England. India, playing a Test after a gap of eight years then, staged an upset win thanks to some effective seam bowling before beating South Africa at home.

“There is always scope for Test cricket and girls are more than keen to play because it is a great base to build your skill which will help your white ball cricket too. One of the reasons men’s team is doing well is because we have multi-day format U16 onwards,” said Karim. “Now that BCCI has embarked on a path to resume Test cricket, it is important that we have a domestic structure for it from at least U19 onwards.”

Currently, the domestic structure for women only feature white ball cricket.

Lack of long format fitness

Before 2014, the players had twoday cricket on the domestic calendar. There have been some zonal three-day matches staged too, the last of which was played in 2017.

“I got an opportunit­y to come back to the Indian team because I made runs there,” said Raut, who went on to score 86 in a tense run chase in the 2017 ODI World Cup final where India finished agonizingl­y short. “Although we won the two Tests in 2014, I can tell you from my experience that we did not have match-fitness for long format cricket. I remember after my 275-run stand for the second wicket, I just couldn’t lift my legs. My body had gone all sore.”

Ten players in India’s 18-member squad for England don’t know what it’s like to play a Test match. Even for a veteran like pacer Jhulam Goswami, a Test match is cause to get both “excited and nervous”.

“There are lots of questions going through my mind now. Will we be able to adapt, to switch off and switch on at the right moments?” Goswami said. “There will be sessions we won’t get a wicket and when all we get is a chance, we will have to take it. So, mentally we have to be very strong and obviously physically too because how else will you last a day and over the course of a game take 20 wickets? Add to all that, we will have a number of newcomers, so it will be a big challenge.”

For those like teenager Shafali Verma, who hasn’t featured in an ODI let alone a Test match, it’s a towering challenge.

But 35-year-old left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht says she does not find it too difficult to adjust from ODI to Test cricket. “I am feeling great that we will be playing Test cricket again. It’s the best format in cricket,” she said. “Bowling 10-15 over spells helps your consistenc­y. We should definitely have a Test match every series.”

A steady line of purists, including those amongst the current players, are calling for more Test cricket in the women’s sport. The argument that it does not draw crowds or viewers is pointless—at one time, there were no crowds for women’s 50-overs games or T20s too.

“Commercial­ly viability is too premature. A product needs continuity and constant exposure in the market. And there are so few Tests being played,” said player turned commentato­r Snehal Pradhan. “It’s going to be the pursuit of the elite, so to speak. Only those countries who can afford to play Test cricket will play. So, it falls on the well-off boards to nurture Test cricket for the boards that can’t afford it.” After a 15-year gap, a Test match between India and Australia is in the works during India’s September tour Down Under.

 ?? GETTY IMAGES ?? The last time India played a Test against England was when the Mithali Raj-led team toured the UK in August 2014.
GETTY IMAGES The last time India played a Test against England was when the Mithali Raj-led team toured the UK in August 2014.

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