England’s bid to win the Women’s Ashes for the first time in 13 years may hinge on a bill the England and Wales Cricket Board is prepared to pick up itself. ECB chair Richard Thompson has confirmed the board will “look at” funding the women’s Test against West Indies scheduled for the Caribbean in April and May 2027 — a tour that has been thrown into doubt by Cricket West Indies’ sweeping cost-cutting programme.
The reasoning is bluntly practical. England’s first assignment of the 2027 Ashes is the four-point Test at Headingley in June, and they have played a single red-ball match in the two and a half years since Australia dismantled them at the MCG.
“I hope not. That’s not expected to be cancelled. I hope it will take place,” Thompson said of the Caribbean Test. “We want that Test match to play out. It’s very important for us because our first women’s match in the Ashes is the Headingley Test, so we need a good red-ball warm-up. We’ve got to be playing somewhere and we’d much prefer that to be the West Indies.”
A tour fee with a precedent
The idea of a host board being paid to stage its own home match is not new to the ECB. The board covered a touring fee for Zimbabwe’s men ahead of their one-off Test at Trent Bridge in 2025, and Thompson’s comments point to a similar mechanism being available here.
What has forced the question is the state of CWI’s finances. The board announced a package of money-saving measures last month, including cuts to player contracts, after disclosing it had spent more than $80m on domestic inter-island air travel over the past 15 years. The warning sign for England came in March 2026, when West Indies’ scheduled women’s Test against Australia was scrapped while the white-ball fixtures around it went ahead — exactly the outcome the ECB is now trying to pre-empt.
The 2027 itinerary, announced back in 2024, is built around three T20Is, three ODIs and the Test, with venues and dates still to be confirmed. The Test alone carries disproportionate weight:
- It would be the first women’s Test between England and West Indies since 1979 — a 47-year gap
- West Indies have not played a Test of any kind since facing Pakistan in 2004
- It is England’s only scheduled red-ball cricket before Headingley, beyond a 10-day training camp in India in January 2027
Two Tests in 30 months
England’s red-ball drought is the heart of the problem. Their last Test before the 2027 Ashes summer was the inaugural women’s match at Lord’s in July 2026, and it was chastening: India won by 270 runs, declaring on 341-7 after a first-innings 285, while England were dismissed for 170 and 186. Kranti Gaud took 5-37 and 2-54, and India’s spinners finished the job inside 95 minutes on the fourth morning. Sophie Ecclestone’s defiant maiden international fifty was the only sustained English resistance.
Before that, the 2024-25 Ashes produced the first 16-0 whitewash in the multi-format era. Australia took every point on offer, winning all three ODIs, all three T20Is and the day-night Test at the MCG by an innings and 122 runs inside three days. Alana King claimed 5-53 in the final innings for nine in the match and 23 for the series; Ashleigh Gardner shared nine wickets with her as England’s batting folded in a single session.
That defeat triggered an ECB review covering mental and physical resilience and a wholesale change of leadership. The institutional lesson appears to have landed: a team that has played two Tests in roughly 30 months cannot be asked to open an Ashes series in a format it barely practises.
What it means for 2027 — and for women’s Tests
The Headingley Test, beginning 24 June, will be the ground’s first women’s Test since 2001 and runs concurrently with the men’s Ashes, which starts at Trent Bridge on 18 June. England’s women then face three T20Is at Trent Bridge, The Oval and Old Trafford plus three ODIs. With four points attached to the Test, a repeat of Lord’s would effectively hand Australia a quarter of the series before the white-ball cricket begins.
The wider significance is harder to spin positively. A Test match in the Caribbean is now viable largely because a wealthy board needs the fixture for its own preparation — a reminder that red-ball cricket for women survives at the discretion of whichever board can afford it. Clare Connor warned more than a decade ago that women’s Tests were “hanging by a thread”. Thompson’s willingness to write a cheque confirms the thread holds, but only where someone has a reason to pull it.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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