Finally the Women’s Ashes is not an afterthought – and fans are flooding in

C ontrary to popular belief, this is not the first time the women’s and men’s Ashes have run concurrently, nor is it the first attempt at joined-up marketing by the England and Wales Cricket Board. The 2013 “#RISE for the Ashes” campaign featured Alastair Cook and Charlotte Edwards, admittedly on separate posters, with the same squiggly orange flames as the backdrop.

The following summer, with Waitrose on board as the new £3m sponsor of men’s and women’s Test cricket, a TV advert showed Stuart Board, Jimmy Anderson and Katherine Brunt shopping in what purported to be their local supermarket, while Jonathan Agnew commentated on their choice of groceries.

What did both campaigns have in common? Women’s cricket was present, but only as an afterthought. Sky promoted the 2013 Women’s Ashes using the tagline “One Down, One to go: See if the women’s team can secure our second Ashes victory of the summer”.

The Waitrose ad was an unmitigated disaster, with Anderson and Broad failing to acknowledge Brunt while Agnew’s voiceover ignored her presence completely. For all the recognition she got, she might as well have been a random extra who had wandered in off the streets to do her shopping wearing an England shirt. Fortunately for the ECB, the advert was swiftly pulled from the airwaves due to controversy over Agnew’s involvement.

Ten years later, the marketing looks a little different. The award-winning “Ashes, Two Ashes” campaign centres on a 30-second TV advert with split-screen images, flitting between footage and commentary from the women’s and men’s games, and concludes with the slogan: “The only thing better than an Ashes series? Two.” Two weeks ago, images of the England captains – Heather Knight and Ben Stokes – were