Twitter slams ECB as England Women and India Women are forced to play on used men’s T20 cricket pitch

India Women will face off against England Women in the one-off Test starting on June 16 in Bristol. While the move of women playing a Test match was lauded by one and all, now the decision of the Test being played on a used pitch at the County Ground, Bristol has not gone well with many experts and critics.

An interesting thing to note is that the Bristol pitch was used for one of the T20 Blast matches. Considering the fact that it may have become slow and dry, this move by the England Cricket Board (ECB) has met with a lot of backlash. While the pitch becoming slow might favor the Indian team, as they generally rely on the slow bowlers to come good. But the same cannot be said of the England side who, just have two specialist spinners in the form of Sophie Ecclestone and Mady Villiers.

England skipper Heather Knight spoke to the media during the pre-match press conference and termed this piece of information as “not ideal”, whilst mildly requesting the authorities for a fresh pitch, which was denied. Naturally, the decision didn’t go well with many former cricketers, experts, and journalists who felt there is no fairground.

England Cricket Board spokesperson disappointed for not providing fresh wicket

After the barrage of criticism which came thick and fast, the ECB spokesperson has answered by saying that they were ready to provide it, but due to some issues they could not provide on this instance.

“We are all disappointed that the wicket for the Test match against India will have had 37 overs played on it. We know that England Women deserve a fresh wicket and we are sorry that we were unable to provide that in this instance.

“With the Test only being added to the calendar in mid-April, coupled with the lack of available first-class grounds, we knew a fresh TV pitch was going to be a challenge. We accept that this issue shouldn’t have arisen and we will make sure it doesn’t happen in the future.” The spokesperson said.

On another note, India is yet to lose a Test match versus their opponent in England.

Here’s how Twitter reacted