Last week, Greg Barclay, the independent chair of the International Cricket Council (ICC), disappointed the cricket community when he cast doubt over the future of women's Test cricket.
Momentum has been building over the past couple of years for a revival of the women's traditional format, with a chorus of players expressing their desire to play it on a more regular basis.
Barclay told the BBC he couldn't see it being "part of the women's landscape moving forward", and in the same breath spoke about the legacy of men's Tests, leading to calls from former cricketing greats for the ICC to hand back control of the women's game to those who are passionate about its history.
Former Australian Test captain Raelee Thompson was angered by the bleak future Barclay portrayed for women's Test cricket, and said she could no longer keep quiet.
"To think that Mr Barclay just flatly refused to even consider women's Tests and that he didn't even acknowledge there was any history … I mean, we introduced overarm bowling … you have to know the backstory to do it justice and I'm afraid most of the men in charge don't have any idea," Thompson told the ABC.
"I see a need for a separate women's council to look after women's cricket … I think we'd still have to be part of the ICC, but that would be a much better fit, because the women understand the needs of the female players and actually value the history of what our forebears have done."
The disappointing decline in women's Test cricket
The summer of 1934/5 saw the official birth of women's Test cricket, as England headed Down Under to play Australia in the inaugural women's Ashes series before crossing the ditch to play a standalone Test against New Zealand.
Under the governance of women — whether it be their individual committees or the International Women's Cricket Council — Test cricket thrived. There were 123 total women's Test matches played up to the amalgamation of the ICC in April 2005, and 115 of these were played by these three leading countries.
But in the 17 years following the merger of the international men's and women's sides of the game, women's Tests have become a rarer occurrence.
New Zealand hasn't played a single Test since the merge, while Australia and England have played 18 between them, keeping the count ticking over with their largely biennial Ashes contest.
Even those were reduced from a series to a standalone Test match by 2008, later incorporating three ODIs and three T20Is in 2013 to become the multi-format, points-based system used today.
Women's cricket didn't arrive in India until 40 years later, when they formed their first association (1973) and made their Test debut against the West Indies (1976). India were quick to catch up, though, staging 31 matches in the 29 years before the ICC merged and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) followed.
Since then, India has had a fractured relationship with Test cricket, playing just eight Tests and facing two extended absences (2006-2014, 2014-2021) from the format altogether.
It's important to mention that part of the blame for this halt in progress lies within each country's governing body. Many, like the ICC, didn't see the traditional format as a priority once they merged their men's and women's committees.
Instead, they placed their focus on the shorter formats in an effort to monetise the game.
And there's no doubt this has helped to accelerate the development of women's cricket, forging a new professional era with more sponsorship, better pay and increased media coverage.
Still, the women were the ones who had to perform, and their success with the white ball has given them greater influence over the standards and opportunities afforded to them as key stakeholders in the game.
Now, the players say their wish is simply to play more Test cricket — something they've repeated over the past few years ad nauseam.
Australia, England, and India have listened to these demands and managed to stage three Tests between them over the past 12 months. South Africa have also put their hand up to join the charge and will face England in their 13th women's Test in June — their first in eight years.
Now, the only country within the world's top-five ranked teams that is unwilling to budge on its stance is New Zealand, where Barclay previously worked eight years as the New Zealand Cricket (NZC) director.
"I did note that the comments were coming from a Kiwi, and I remember when their committees merged in 1992 that it halted the momentum of their women's Tests … I believe he's pushing that same agenda," Thompson said.
New Zealand's stubbornness towards women's Tests
In the 13 years between NZC's and the ICC's amalgamation, the White Ferns went from being leaders in women's cricket to playing a mere eight Tests.
The move was thought to be groundbreaking, encouraging England (1998) and Australia (2003) to follow, before the ICC did the same and made it mandatory for all of its members.
However, some of the women involved with NZC at the time insist it felt more like a takeover and they were given little choice on the matter, as governments wanted to streamline their flow of funding.
Former White Ferns captain, coach and manager Trish McKelvey recalled the way the New Zealand's Women's Cricket Council was reluctant to go through with it, realising it was likely to be a trade-off for better resources but less power.
"It was in no way a unanimous decision, the women weren't happy about it," McKelvey told the ABC.
An independent report conducted in 2016 forced the NZC to admit it had neglected the women's game, and change was implemented to see women appointed in more administration roles within the domestic pathways and at the head of the sport.
This has at least resulted in more female voices onto the NZC board, with former White Ferns players Debbie Hockley (president) and Lesley Murdoch (vice-president) in charge, and a 50/50 gender split amongst the other board members.
What it hasn't done, though, is create opportunities for women's Test cricket.
"As far as I'm concerned, there are more women on the board, but you wouldn't describe all of them as cricketers. Most of them are businesspeople … it's one thing to be business driven, and another to be sport driven," McKelvey said.
"Our White Ferns should be playing Test matches but I believe while the present people are in charge that, unfortunately, this is unlikely to change."
The push to give more power back to the women
Other passionate advocates have called for women to be given back control in the wake of Barclay's comments.
During the process of writing his book, Captain's File, from Peden to Haynes: Australian Women Test Cricket Captains, author Rob Harvey developed a deep understanding of the history of the game.
He argues that even though the separate women's committees didn't have an abundance of money to play with back in the day, they were still able to make significant progress.
"The majority of the funding they received was self-generated with a little help from the government, and although their takings weren't that great, even on the scraps they had, these women were well ahead of the curve," Harvey said.
"They organised World Cups — including the very first Cricket World Cup, it wasn't until 1975 that the men had one — and they ran proper Test series with multiple matches on a shoestring … Surely if these women were running it today, they'd make a better fist of it."
Women's cricket historian and writer Raf Nicholson of Bournemouth University is currently working on a project that examines a range of mergers between men's and women's sports in the UK.
Nicholson says that although women's cricket has benefited from the funding side of these amalgamations, it is now in a position where it can start to think about what it might look like to reverse the approach.
"I think we've moved beyond the situation where women's cricket is desperate for resources and media attention, and now it's a more powerful position," she said.
"We know it's the biggest growth area of the game and, really, if you suggest they should be grateful to the men, aren't you suggesting that women didn't always deserve to be paid? Of course they did."
Nicholson also points out that there is already a Women's Cricket Committee in place at the ICC, but she believes it has been unable to influence significant change because it has been set up to act as an advisory body to the Chief Executive's Committee with no autonomous decision-making powers.
That Chief Executive's Committee is currently made up of 19 men and one woman, Clare Connor, by way of her position as the chair of the women's committee.
Above that, at the ICC board of directors, the ratio is much the same, with Indra Nooyi the only woman seated at the table alongside 25 men.
"Say the women's committee wanted to mandate that more women's Tests be played. The people in decision-making positions would have probably turned around and said, 'No we don't support that,' so I would like to see that committee given more power," Nicholson said.
When contacted for comment, the ICC told the ABC it was proud of the work it had done over the past decade to grow the women's game, primarily through other formats as a strategic priority.
However, by ignoring the Test format and the role in which the governing body could play in this area, it runs the risk of turning a blind eye to the wants of the current playing group and denying them of a legitimate chance to connect with the game's origins and legacy.
The ICC's response
On the matter of women's Test cricket, a spokesperson from the ICC said:
"The growth of women's cricket is one of the strategic priorities of the ICC strategy and the game has grown significantly in the 17 years since its integration with the ICC. During that period, the ICC, supported and guided by its Women's Cricket Committee, which has remit to assist and advise the ICC on all aspects of strategy and cricketing issues related to the women's game, has invested in women's cricket, driving professionalism and enabling more nations and more fans to enjoy the game.
Test cricket can be played by Members, but the ICC has chosen to focus its investment on the white ball game to accelerate the growth and engage broadcasters and commercial partners so we can achieve a long-term sustainable future for the game. This decision, which supports Members to play Test cricket if they wish, is fully endorsed by both Members and the ICC Women's Cricket Committee, which is made up of current and former greats of the game.
In 2009, the ICC staged its first men's and women's joint T20 World Cup, and after several joint events, these events are now stand-alone giving men and women equal global platforms. Additionally, T20 pathways have been introduced which ensure more of the ICC's 106 Members can play international cricket. Since 2017, every game of every ICC men's and women's events have been broadcast in more than 200 territories to the same high standard of coverage, which when combined with global marketing campaigns to promote the women's game has resulted than more fans than ever before following it. The recent ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2022, is the third most watched ICC event ever (men's or women's). It is disingenuous to suggest a failure of growth in the last 17 years.
This investment has been fantastic for the women's game, who can forget 86,174 people packed into the MCG for the final of the T20 World Cup 2020, or a full house at both Lord's and the Hagley Oval for the Cricket World Cup finals in 2017 and 2022 respectively. We are incredibly proud of what we have achieved in the women's game and will continue our commitment to focus on it over the long-term as we ensure it has a global platform that inspires future generations of fans and players. To focus on the lack of growth in Test cricket is to ignore a huge section of the sport and the hundreds of millions of fans who engage in that."
