Meg Lanning: Women’s Tests should be played more or not at all

In the last decade, only Australia (7), England (9), India (6), and South Africa (2) have played at least one Test match. All of them have been a one-off games part of multi-format series.

FILE PHOTO: Australia’s Meg Lanning in action. | Photo Credit: Reuters

Women’s Test should either be played more or shouldn’t be played at all reckons former Australia captain Meg Lanning.

In the last decade, only Australia (7), England (9), India (6), and South Africa (2) have played at least one Test match. All of them have been a one-off games part of multi-format series.

“If you really want the games to be a good contest and more nations to play and players to understand the game a little bit more, I think we probably need to play more. Or you go the other way, and you don’t play any at all and you focus on the short-format stuff,” Lanning, who recently retired from international cricket, said as quoted by AAP.

During her 13-year-long international career, Lanning played 235 limited over games and only six Tests. “It’s really difficult to prepare for a Test match,” Lanning said. “In my career, we were playing once every two years. It takes us two days to work out how to play it again, and then the Test is over,” the 31-year-old said.

Australia next plays a Test against South Africa at WACA in mid-february, making it its third Test in last year. But Lanning said: “That’s great if that means there can be more Tests in the calendar, I think that’ll happen over time. But that’s where I sit on it. It’s either more or you sort of don’t go there at all because I think once every so often is pretty difficult as a player.”