Bazball breathes life into England’s Ashes campaign

In the space of a weekend, both the England men’s and women’s cricket teams have resurrected their respective bids to win back the Ashes from Australia.

Last Saturday, at Lords, the women’s team won the third of three T20 matches to add to its victory in the second match. The hybrid series consists of one Test, three T20s and three One Day Internationals. It will be decided on a points basis. England now has four points to the six gained by Australia. A further six points are available via the three ODIs played between July 12 and 18.

Before the T20 match at Lords, a commemoration took place in the Harris Garden behind the pavilion. It marked the 25th anniversary of a ceremony that took place in 1998 to create the first women’s Ashes trophy. The day before a One Day International, the England and Australian teams gathered in the garden, along with other guests. There, a miniature bat signed by the players of each team, along with a copy of the Women’s Cricket Association’s constitution, was burned in a wok acquired from the kitchen. Later, the ashes were placed into a hollow wooden cricket ball, commissioned by the president of the WCA. The ball forms part of a larger trophy, which dwarfs that of the urn competed for by the men.

The significance of including the WCA constitution, drawn up in 1930, is that it contained a clause dictating that “no member of any affiliated club shall take part in any cricket challenge cup or prize competition.”

England’s captain in the first women’s Test series between the two countries in 1934 in Australia reinforced this, declaring: “We are not here for any Ashes but merely to play cricket.” Given that England won a three-match series 2-0, she may have had regrets over her stance.

F