LONDON
\nEngland women\u2019s cricket captain Heather Knight welcomed on Wednesday the news that her side will play a five-day Ashes Test at Trent Bridge next year.
\nThe England and Wales Cricket Board and Cricket Australia have agreed to cast aside the longstanding convention that has restricted the women\u2019s Test matches to four-day affairs in 2023.
\nJust six women\u2019s Tests have taken place worldwide in the last five years, all finishing in draws after time ran out, but now the marquee event of the multi-format series will have three additional sessions to reach a more fitting conclusion.
\nThe move brings parity with a men\u2019s Ashes programme announced at the same time.
\nThe women\u2019s Test begins on June 22, two days after the conclusion of the men\u2019s Edgbaston opener against Australia, and represents a first in England.
\nAnd Knight, whose side will also play T20s at the Oval, Edgbaston and Lord\u2019s for the first time, offered a ringing endorsement.
\n\u201cI\u2019m so happy, I feel like I\u2019ve been banging the drum for five days for a long time, so it\u2019s a special moment,\u201d she told Britain\u2019s PA news agency.
\n\u201cIt feels like the right time, for five days, for bigger grounds, and it feels like it\u2019s been a long time coming. Last year\u2019s South Africa Test was set up nicely but withered out because of rain and it wasn\u2019t given the chance to finish, so this is a really good step by the boards.
\n\u201cI probably spent most of my career being grateful for what you\u2019re given. When I started out anything was a bonus, you were just happy to be playing the sport you love for England and not even getting paid, but my eyes have opened a bit more.
\n\u201cYou see the inequalities you\u2019ve gone through and not really realised. Moving forward on an equal footing is a logical progression.\u201d
\nGreg Barclay, chair of the International Cricket Council, said during a trip to Lord\u2019s in June that he did not believe Tests formed \u201cpart of the landscape\u201d in the women\u2019s game and could not see the format \u201cevolving\u201d.
\nKnight says her side are committed to proving the opposite.
\n\u201cAfter those comments we talked about trying to save the format for women, to do everything we can to move the game forward, to keep Test matches going and make them appealing,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cWe want to do everything we can to move it forward, to take more risks, to make it exciting to watch. Hopefully being at a massive ground like Trent Bridge will attract loads of people and it could be a really lovely occasion.\u201d
\nEngland\u2019s men begin their 2023 schedule with a four-day Test against Ireland at Lord\u2019s on June 1 before attempting to regain the urn from Australia in a five-match series that begins on June 16 and ends less than seven weeks later on July 31 with games at Edgbaston, Lord\u2019s, Headingley, Old Trafford and the Oval.
\nFormer England captain Joe Root is enthusiastic about what lies ahead for both teams, telling PA: \u201cBoth teams want the Ashes back. With both series on at the same time there\u2019ll hopefully be an Ashes buzz that both teams can tap into and benefit from.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a really important step for the women\u2019s game.
\n\u201cThere are few feelings better in cricket than getting over the line and winning a tight Test match, and it can be frustrating when a draw becomes the only option, so it\u2019s sensible to try and get a result over five days and I don\u2019t see why it should be any different from men\u2019s cricket.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON England women\u2019s cricket captain Heather Knight welcomed on Wednesday the news that her side will play a five-day Ashes Test at Trent Bridge next year. The England and Wales Cricket Board and Cricket Australia have agreed to cast aside the longstanding convention that has restricted the women\u2019s Test matches to four-day affairs in 2023. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284910,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-284900","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n