The Women’s Ashes has been a multi-format series since 2013, with Australia the holders
(Picture: Getty Images)The ECB will look to build on the popularity of women’s cricket by taking the multi-format Ashes to more major venues next year, including a Test match set to be held at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.
In recent years, England have generally played their women’s internationals at grounds with smaller capacities, such as Derby, Worcester, Leicester and Chelmsford.
Next month they will play an ODI, against India, at Lord’s for the first time since the World Cup final in 2017, and the first time in a bilateral match since 2014.
The popularity of The Hundred, Commonwealth Games and other women’s cricket – and indeed women’s sport more widely – has encouraged the ECB to take the women’s game to bigger audiences more regularly.
So next season’s Ashes schedule will see England play a Test at Trent Bridge, T20s at the Kia Oval, Lord’s and Edgbaston (which recently hosted a successful Commonwealth Games), and ODIs at the Ageas Bowl, Taunton and Bristol.
Taunton and Bristol are the only grounds on that list that have hosted England’s women regularly in recent years, including in a Test match over each of the last two summers. Most of the venues that will be used next year have not hosted England’s women in a generation.
Trent Bridge does not currently have a men’s Test scheduled next summer, although there is a four-day Test against Ireland in England’s Future Tours Programme that is yet to be allocated. Trent Bridge hosting the women would appear to increase the likelihood of the men’s Test against Ireland heading to the Ageas Bowl.
This season’s Hundred has seen record crowds for women’s domestic cricket at all eight of its venues.
The Women’s Ashes has been played as a multi-format series since 2013, and the all-conquering Australians – who recently added the Commonwealth Games titles to both the T20 and ODI World Cups – are the current holders.
