Australia vice-captain Rachael Haynes calls for domestic 4-day games to prepare for Tests
Jul 05, 2021
Melbourne [Australia], July 5 : Australia vice-captain Rachael Haynes feels a domestic four-day match should be introduced to ensure women's cricketers are well-groomed when they play their first match in the longest format of the game.
Australia will take on India in a multi-format series to kick off the 2021-22 international summer of cricket. The WACA will host the second-ever women's day-night Test match in September.
The historic Test match will be the first between the Australian and Indian women's teams in 15 years, and India's first-ever women's day-night Test.
Haynes on Monday termed the experience of playing long-form cricket at the international level as a "baptism of fire" since the side lacks game time in Tests.
"The difficult thing at the moment is we don't play any long-form cricket (domestically) so it's a real baptism of fire when your first opportunity to play that format is at the international (level)," cricket.com.au quoted Haynes as saying.
"I think it's a real discussion point for administrators to try and address ... if they're committed (to playing Tests) they should be allowing players to play that four-day format (domestically) to replicate what you need to do at the next level," she added.
The Australia vice-captain said if Test cricket is the way forward there must be commitment at domestic level too along with a robust plan to help out the transition.
"If you look at the landscape of international cricket at the moment, there's only two countries in the world that have anything that remotely looks like a semi-professional domestic set-up," Haynes said.
"It really is a discussion point and something that all nations need to come to an understanding that if Test cricket is the way forward, there needs to be a commitment not just at international level but domestically as well ... I do think there needs to be a good robust plan around how it is integrated into the wider cricket landscape," she added.
Australia will also lock horns with England in the multi-format Ashes in January 2022.
