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Red-ball cricket for women is set to return to India’s domestic calendar after six years. The BCCI has scheduled to conduct the Senior Women’s Inter-Zonal Multi-Day Trophy in Pune on March 28. Domestic cricket for women was last played in 2018, which was a two-day test match.
This development comes after India played back-to-back tests against England and Australia in December 2023. India played test on their tours to England and Australia in 2021, but it was in 2014 before last year that they played at home soil.
The matches will be hosted by the Maharashtra Cricket Association, with the East Zone taking on the North East Zone and the West Zone taking on the Central Zone. The North Zone and South Zone have been placed in the semi-finals straightaway and will play the winners of the other two games on April 3. The final is scheduled to be played on April 9. Earlier, it used to be a two-day affair, but the apex cricketing body in the country has decided to change it to three days. The tournament will test the fitness of all the players who are deprived of opportunities to play competitive cricket.
The tournament will begin 10 days after the ongoing Women’s Premier League season ends. The final of the WPL is scheduled to end on March 17 in Delhi. There have been a lot of voices raised recently for women’s cricket to be organised, with the occasional test featuring Australia, England, and South Africa. Before the England test in December 2023,
Smriti Mandhana was quoted saying,
“Our bodies are not used to playing back-to-back days of cricket because we generally play T20s and ODIs, which have gaps. More than the physical part, being there for four days mentally, trying to focus on each ball.”
More recently, Meg Lanning took a stance on promoting test cricket for women, talking about how difficult it is to prepare for a test match and how playing on an irregular basis makes it even worse.
