India opener Smriti Mandhana on Tuesday (December 12) batted for World Test Championship in women's cricket. However, England’s Tammy Beaumont feels it would be unfair to conduct such a competition when only three countries are playing regularly.
In men's cricket, the International Cricket Council (ICC) introduced the concept of WTC in 2019 to popularize Test cricket. It is currently in its third edition.
"I would love to be a part of the World Test Championship but that is for the boards and the ICC to decide," Mandhana told reporters.
"Having watched a lot of men's Test cricket and championships that would be really exciting to be a part of something of that sort. But as I said, that would be their (administrators') decision," she added.
India and England will square off in a one-off Test at the DY Patil Stadium, Mumbai on Thursday (December 14). It will be after a couple of years that the hosts will be competing in Test cricket.
For England, the gap has been of about six months since they last played Tests. Hence, Beaumont feels it is not the right time for a women's WTC given the existing disparity in terms of number of matches played.
"I do not think it is quite the right time, if I am honest. At the moment there is only three or four nations that are playing Test match cricket regularly and potentially (there are) only three or four governing bodies that can afford to host women's Test cricket,” Beaumont said.
The England batter does not expect the cricket’s governing body to invest in any such tournament.
“That will have to be a very big investment from the ICC, I do not think they are probably willing to put into,” she said.
Beaumont called for the countries to have more matches during a bilateral tour and get other nations like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand playing more women's Test cricket.
"They are still trying to develop the T20 game across the globe, the way you have seen Thailand and other countries come into T20 cricket. I think that should stay as a focus, however, I would love to see more nations do maybe like a multi-format series like we do in the Ashes,” she said.
“So say, India come over and we do Test match, ODI and T20Is and (get an) overall winner from that. We do that from South Africa and New Zealand and all those teams and build from there.”
“One day, I would love to see a World Test Championship but at the moment I do not think it would be fair when you have India, Australia and England have played a lot of Tests in the last four years but other teams like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand have not played any Test cricket in the last 15 years,” Beaumont added.
“The imbalance is still there, we need to build it from ground up a little bit longer and definitely have many Tests,” said the England opening batter.
(With PTI Inputs)
