60 Wednesday January 26 2022 | the times
SportCricket
Two senior England players have called
on cricket administrators to show more
commitment to developing women’s
Test cricket.
Their calls come before England’s
crucial Ashes Test match which begins
tonight in Canberra. The standalone
match is worth four points in the multi-
format points-based series and if Aus-
tralia win, and take all four points, they
will retain the Ashes, which England
have not held since 2014.
Katherine Brunt, who is England’s
most-experienced player, says she
loves Test cricket, despite how infre-
quently women get to play the format,
and says she is “sick to death” of the
sport not evolving to develop it.
“I just wish they’d tinker with it,” she
said. “We need to make things more ex-
citing, more challenging. The totals
said. “Whether it’s CJ, whether it’s
Reece Topley, Tymal Mills, Mark
Wood, Chris Woakes, there’s a lot of
players out there who can do the job —
Jofra [too] when he gets himself fit. We
just have to make sure that we can rely
on four or five to do the job at any given
time.”
Against New Zealand, it was Adil Ra-
shid and Chris Woakes who were also
punished. On Sunday Saqib Mahmood
suffered, conceding 28 from the final
over when 30 were needed to win.
“We went on to win the game but he
knows that he can execute better,” Col-
lingwood said. “I would sympathise,
certainly in the last two balls he
couldn’t really take a risk of going for awide yorker, it was going to put them
back in the game.
“As we know it’s something he’s done
for franchises around the world really
successfully, he just didn’t quite get it
right the other night.
“Your big learning is out in the middle
when you are under pressure.”
Changes are expected to England’s
XI today. Liam Livingstone may return
after missing the first two matches with
oesophagitis. His role as power hitter
and variety spin bowler improves the
balance of the XI and will affect whe-
ther any uncapped players — the bats-
men Harry Brook and Phil Salt, and the
left-arm seamers George Garton and
David Payne — make their debut.Jordan, pictured in the autumn, has played in 63 of Morgan’s 72 matches as captainCash-strapped
Yorkshire set to
regain England
hosting rights
Yorkshire could have their right to host
international matches restored as early
as next week — after their chairman
warned that the county would “not be
financially viable” without having
England games at Headingley.
Allegations of a racist and discrimi-
natory culture at Yorkshire, made by
their former player, Azeem Rafiq, led to
the county being suspended from
hosting international games.
Lord Patel of Bradford, Yorkshire’s
chairman, told MPs at a digital, culture,
media and sport select committee
hearing yesterday that the county
would be in big financial trouble if
November’s decision were not
overturned.
He will meet with the ECB next
Tuesday in an effort to prove how
Yorkshire have met the ten criteria
relating to governance, participation
and outreach that the governing body
have demanded to see progress on.
If he is successful, Yorkshire should
be free to host international cricket
again. Headingley had been due to
stage the third Test between England
and New Zealand from June 23, before
hosting a one-day international against
South Africa on July 24.
An investigation by the ECB into
Yorkshire’s handling of Rafiq’s claims is
expected to finish within a few weeks,
after which the county may be handed
a points penalty across the three do-
mestic tournaments. They are expect-
ed to escape more serious sanctions.
Julian Knight MP, the chairman of
the select committee, said that Colin
Graves, the former chairman of the
ECB and Yorkshire, should “put up or
shut up” over the role of his family’s
trust in the running of Yorkshire.
Roger Hutton, Yorkshire’s former
chairman who resigned in November,
had written to the committee claiming
that the Graves Trust, which is owed
about £15 million by Yorkshire, had
exercised a power of veto that had
caused a roadblock for Hutton in
removing some senior coaching staff
and executives who had been involved
in the Rafiq scandal.
Knight said that Graves had been
invited to attend the committee to
explain the role of the trust, in Novem-
ber and yesterday, but that he had
declined on both occasions.
Cricket chief: Black people prefer football
News, page 11Elizabeth AmmonIf Eoin Morgan wins the toss today and
opts to bat, this T20 series in Barbados
truly is about learning for England. In
the first two matches, that decision has
been foisted upon him by Kieron Pol-
lard’s correct calls. After losing the toss
in the opening game, Morgan said he
would have batted first anyway.
England’s T20 success since Morgan
took over as captain — No 1 in the
world rankings but no World Cup titles
— has been predicated on a fondness
for chasing. They have come unstuck
when having to defend a total: Carlos
Brathwaite’s four sixes did for Ben
Stokes in the last over of the 2016 final
before a cumulative haemorrhaging of
57 runs in three overs sent New Zealand
through to the 2021 final in England’s
place. Three nights ago, England nar-
rowly beat West Indies after shipping 72
runs in the final 4.5 overs.
One number looms large on this
issue: 23 runs came off Chris Jor-
dan’s 17th over in the semi-final
two months ago and his 18th over
on Sunday. That is a coincidence.
Here is a pattern: Morgan has
elected to bowl first the past 23
times he has won the toss in a
T20 international, ever
since England mustered
135 for seven in a nine-
wicket defeat by
Pakistan at Old Trafford
in September 2016.
Death bowling in a T20
chase is as difficult and
dangerous as it gets. (Every
whack, biff and larrup from
Jason Holder that landed in
the stands — at least one
went over the pavilion — dur-
ing West Indies’ practice
yesterday was a reminder
Time England
mastered art
of bowling at
the death
that batsmen around the world are
waiting to ruin your day.) And it is
something that, for more than five
years, England have tried to avoid. “We
do have to get better at posting totals
and batting first and adapting to condi-
tions, that’s an area where we always
have to get better,” Paul Collingwood,
England’s stand-in head coach for this
tour, said.
“We need to improve our death bowl-
ing and death bowling really only gets
tested under serious pressure when
you’re bowling second and you’re try-
ing to defend a total. If you’re going into
World Cups, you’ve got to make sure
you’ve got all bases covered.
“You’ve got to be really honest and as
Morgs said in the interview afterwards,
it’s not the plans that we’re getting
wrong, it’s the execution. It’s a difficult
thing to do so execution is key, whether
it’s yorkers or slower balls — the decep-
tion that you need in T20 cricket.”
Jordan is the most-experienced
member of England’s bowling ranks
under Morgan, having played in 63 of
his 72 matches as captain. In
the 2016 final, he came on
with West Indies needing 45
runs and gave away 15 from
two overs, leaving 19 to win
and Marlon Samuels off
strike. A return to Jordan’s
2016 outcomes would signifi-
cantly strengthen England,
given he is one of the world’s
best fielders and has scored 55
off 38 balls in the past two
matches from the lower order.
The return of Jofra Archer,
who bowled tentatively in
training yesterday, from elbow
surgery in the coming months
will bolster England’s death-
bowling stocks considerably.
“We can’t hide away from the
fact that it is an area, that if we
get right, then it is a very for-
midable side,” CollingwoodElgan Alderman Barbados
Archer is back training with
England after his surgery
GARETH COPLEY/ICC/GETTY IMAGESWest Indies
v England
Third T20i, Bridgetown,
tonight, 8pm.
TV: BT Sport 1
Radio: talkSPORT223
Chris Jordan conceded
23 runs in the 17th over of
the World Cup semi-final
defeat by New Zealand
and in the 18th over of
Sunday’s T20 victory
over West IndiesBrunt: Women’s Test cricket needs a revamp – even I’m bored of it
have gone up and the wickets have gone
down. We shouldn’t be playing on the
same length pitches as men, we should
not be playing off 22 yards; it’s wrong.”
Women play with a smaller, lighter
ball, but there is a feeling that reducing
the length of the pitch to 20 or 18 yards
would add more pace to the bowling
and open up more wicket-taking op-
portunities for the bowlers and more
scoring options for the batters, making
Test matches less likely to end in a draw.
There have been only nine women’s
Test matches in the past ten years and
the past four have ended in draws. En-
gland have not won a Test since their
most recent Ashes victory in 2013-14.
Unlike their English male counter-
parts, women play Test matches with a
red Kookaburra ball rather than a
Dukes ball, which has a bigger seam
and offers more swing and seam move-
ment. Dukes do not manufacture a
female-sized ball.“We shouldn’t be bowling
in Test matches with Kook-
aburra balls, that’s wrong,”
Brunt said. “The fact none
of us have bowled with a
Dukes is wrong. If you want
to make us play over four
days then give us a better
pitch to bowl on and give us a
Dukes, otherwise don’t put it on
TV because, honestly, it even
bores me so I don’t know how
anyone else can watch it.”
Kate Cross, the Lancashire
all-rounder who has 52 inter-
national caps, says the time
has come to make women’s
Test matches five days long:
“I think historically that was
around tour lengths and
women apparently weren’tfit enough to manage five days, but I
think we’re ready for that now. I think it
could help with those draws that we
keep getting.”
The future of women’s Test
cricket is now up for debate
across the global cricketing
community. Only three
nations — England, Austra-
lia and India — play Tests and
it is only one or two a year. En-
gland have not played one
since May 2021, against India
in an entertaining match at
Bristol. It also ended in a
draw.
Women do not play multi-
day cricket at domestic level,
playing only limited-overs
white-ball cricket. The reason
is that women have not been
paid professionals until recent-
ly, with most having other jobs or
studying full-time. In recent yearsthe number of full-time or part-time
contracts that allow them to concen-
trate on training and playing has in-
creased, but there are no plans to intro-
duce multi-day domestic cricket.
England head into this week’s Test
trailing 4-2 on points after Australia
won the first T20 and the next two were
washed out. Australia, who only need
eight points to retain the Ashes, have
been boosted by the news that hard-hit-
ting Beth Mooney may be able to return
after fracturing her jaw in the nets. El-
lyse Perry, Australia’s star all-rounder,
was controversially left out of their side
for the T20s but will return for the Test.
Possible teams: Australia A Healy, B Mooney,
M Lanning, E Perry, R Haynes, A King,
A Gardner, S Campbell, T McGrath,
J Jonassen, M Schutt.
England T Beaumont, L Winfield-Hill,
H Knight, N Sciver, A Jones, S Dunkley,
A Shrubsole, K Brunt, K Cross, S Ecclestone,
C Dean.
TV: Day one: BT Sport, January 26 (10.30pm)Women’s Ashes
Elizabeth Ammon
Brunt is “sick to death” of
the many draws in Tests