Women to contest Ashes over all three formats

Reuters: The Australian women’s cricket team will face their English counterparts over all three formats of the game in August with the winners of the Ashes being decided on a points system, officials said on Tuesday.

Women from the two countries first competed against each other in a series to mirror that of their male compatriots in 1934 and the contest became a biennial test series in 2001.

The next version taking place in England later this year, however, will comprise one test match, three one-day internationals and three Twenty20 encounters.

Winning the test match will be worth six points with a win in each of the limited overs matches worth two points. The winner of most points claims the series and the Ashes trophy.

“The women’s game has seen huge growth in interest and profile as a result of the limited overs formats in recent years,” Clare Connor, head of England women’s cricket, said in a news release.

“The new women’s Ashes series looks to combine this reality with the prestige and tradition of test match cricket.

“We believe that this new multi-format series will gain significantly more profile and context than can be generated by playing a one-off test match every couple of years.”

Australia hold the Ashes after reclaiming them by winning a single test in Sydney in January 2011.

The trophy was created in 1998 and contains the ashes of a bat signed by both of the teams that contested the series that year.