Heather Knight insists there is room for Test cricket in the women’s game

England captain Heather Knight has described ICC chair Greg Barclay’s comments questioning the future of women’s Test cricket as a “dangerous message”.

Barclay said in an interview earlier this month that he did not see women’s Test cricket “evolving at any particular speed” or consider it being “part of the landscape moving forward to any real extent at all”.

But Knight, speaking before Monday’s LV= Insurance women’s Test against South Africa in Taunton, said: “Those comments made me sad. As a player I want to play Test cricket, it is seen by a lot of people as the pinnacle.

“It is marketed as the pinnacle and seen as the best and most challenging form of the game, which I definitely agree with.

“It’s probably not a great message from the ICC, or the comments from Greg, that suggested women shouldn’t be playing it.

“I think it’s quite a dangerous message to send that women shouldn’t be playing what is seen as the pinnacle of the game. I’m sure it wasn’t that well thought through.

“We shouldn’t limit what women’s cricket should be, and can do.

I think it's quite a dangerous message to send that women shouldn't be playing what is seen as the pinnacle of the game- England captain Heather Knight

“With the right conditions and the right players, as you saw in Canberra (when England played Australia last winter), women’s Test match cricket can be really exciting and a great spectacle.”

England’s last Test, against Australia in January, ended in a thrilling draw that went down to the final ball of the match.

But only England, Australia and India have played women’s Tests in the past seven years, with South Africa’s previous match coming in 2014.

The solitary four-day Test is the start of a multi-format series, with three