Amidst the COVID-19 lockdown situation in England, the English and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has announced that twenty-four players England women’s team will resume individual skills-based training. They will resume practice on June 22 before a tri-series between South Africa and India.
The South Africa women’s team were supposed to play two T20Is and four ODIs during a bilateral series in September. Before the series against the Proteas, England were to tour India in June. However, both the board agreed to postpone the series due to the lockdown that started in March.
England women’s team to resume training
Meanwhile, ECB had earlier announced that Men’s cricket will be prioritised over women’s cricket fixtures. The decision comes as they look to alleviate the financial impact caused by COVID-19 as much as possible. However, we might soon see some women’s fixtures take place as the players will be returning to training.
Three out of the 24 players announced include Heather Knight, Nat Sciver and Sophie Ecclestone. They will train across six different venues under bio-secure conditions that are in line with the men’s squad. Notably, the men squad has also returned to training and will play West Indies in a three-match Test series. At first, the training will be done individually which will later convert to smaller groups as days progress.
The six different training venues are ECB’s National Performance Centre in Loughborough, Emerald Headingley, The Kia Oval, Bristol County Ground, 1st Central County Ground in Hove and Chester Boughton Hall CC in Lancashire.
Meanwhile, England’s women team director said that they are hopeful of playing some cricket this summer. He also said that they remain grateful to the counties for coming forward in helping ECB.
“We remain hopeful of playing cricket this summer and it’s exciting for this group of players to be ready to return to training. We’ve had great support from the first-class counties with the utilization of their venues, and we’re grateful to them for that, and hopefully, this is often one step closer towards England Women returning to the sector this summer,” he said.