The England Women’s team could be sacrificed as the England and Wales Cricket Board focus on compensating the potential £380m losses incurred due to Coronavirus outbreak.
The England Women were scheduled to face India in home, which is postponed for now. The series against South Africa that is to happen in September could might as well be cancelled.
The ECB has accepted that they are trying to focus on the men’s team in order to compensate for the potential losses due to the pandemic. The ECB’s managing director of women’s cricket Clare Connor said that they have to be “completely realistic.”
“If the international women’s schedule can’t be fulfilled in full but a large amount of the men’s programme can this summer, which is going to reduce that £380m hole, we have to be realistic about that. We’ve got long-term ambitions for the game that extends beyond this summer and trying to protect as much investment as possible over the next five years. That is largely going to come down to how much international men’s cricket can be staged this summer. That’s not to say we won’t be fighting hard to play against India and South Africa as best we can.”
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Conor said that no one would be more devastated than her if there is no women’s cricket this summer. “If we have to play less international women’s cricket this summer to safeguard the longer-term future, investment and building the infrastructure for a more stable and sustainable women’s game then that is probably a hit we might have to take.”
Upon asked on the kind of message that would send across players and fans, Conor said, “It would be disappointing. We have to communicate really well and honestly about what we are doing and why. I don’t think you can argue with the rationale and, in order for the whole game to survive, the financial necessity rests on many of these international men’s matches being fulfilled.”
Vale, Professor Deano | Dean Jones