After 8 years, India women's team departs to play a Test

MUMBAI: The comparison cannot be more glaring, ironic or perhaps tragic. The occasion was the pre-departure presser of the Indian cricket team for a tour to England, but there were only a handful of journalists around. The reason? It was the women's team after all.
Not that it would have upset India skipper Mithali Raj, who will be captaining the side in the one-off Test and three ODIs.She seemed happy with the mere fact that the women's team is, at last, getting to play a Test match, because the last time they played one was back in the summer of 2006 against the same opposition.
While that side, which beat the hosts 1-0 in a two-Test series to record India's maiden triumph in England, never got to play a Test cricket in the next eight years, MS Dhoni & Co, who were walloped 4-0 in England in 2011, were provided with a five-Test tour to the old Blighty merely three seasons later.
Apart from Mithali, there are only two players who were part of that '06 English tour -seamer Jhulan Goswami and wicketkeeper Karuna Jain, who is the vice-captain this time. India did play a five-match ODI series in England in 2012 though, which it lost 2-3 after having taken a 2-0 lead.
On Sunday , Mithali justified India not playing any Tests by saying that the ICC seem to be more keen on promoting the ODIs and T20s, with only England and Australia the only countries playing the longer version, thanks to the Ashes' rivalry between them.
While the administrators obviously weigh in financial considerations before drawing up itineraries, lack of Test cricket for the national women's cricket team still doesn't cut ice with former India skipper Diana Eduljee.
"I have been fighting with the BCCI for long on this topic. I just can't understand our team not playing Test cricket all this while. I hope the BCCI has woken up for good, and the next tour doesn't happen after another eight years," Eduljee told TOI, The highest wicket-taker in the women's game, however, doesn't have much hope from this team, which will play the lone Test from August 13 at Wormsley .
"We will be outplayed by the English, because our girls don't know how to play Tests. To make it worse, the planning for this tour has been bad. We haven't trained in the right places, where it didn't rain much. The team hasn't practiced enough - even the selection matches were washed out. No wonder, 'Unheard players' are being picked, and the India cap is being distributed freely . Mithali herself is over the hill now. She is suffering from a bad knee injury - I don't even know how she would play," said Eduljee.
Explaining how grim the situation was for women's cricket in India, she adds, "There is just one 50-over tournament, and one T20 event, which means the girls don't get to play four-dayers in domestic cricket, as was the case earlier. The whole domestic cricket calendar can be finished within a month. This has resulted in the standards having gone down drastically. The girls have no temperament to stay at the wicket, which Tests teach you. The scene is bleak," she lamented.
There is a ray of hope, though as Mithali revealed that the Board was planning a domestic tournament this season which would involve two-dayers.