England relish tickets boom for ‘special’ Women’s Ashes against supreme Australia

With more financial backing than ever and Ashes ticket sales exploding, women’s cricket is in a better place than ever ahead of the Test at Trent Bridge

England practice at Trent Bridge ahead of the Ashes Test (Reuters)

Nat Sciver-Brunt believes this summer’s “special” Ashes series against Australia has received more attention than any other.

The all-rounder made her England debut in July 2013, at Louth, a club ground in Lincolnshire, a far cry from those coming through now who could first step over the rope in an England cap at Trent Bridge.

Captain Heather Knight has said of her own debut in 2010 in Mumbai that it was played in front of “one man and his dog”, but 2023 has been billed as “one summer, two Ashes” and over 70,000 tickets have been sold for the women’s series.

“It’s really special,” Sciver-Brunt told The Independent. “This summer, before it’s even started has got so much more hype around it, it’s got so much more excitement.

“With the marketing the way that it has been done, it’s just allowed us to be more visible and more seen. People know what’s going a bit more which obviously helps.

“We’re at the start of a really exciting few months and hopefully we can use our way of playing, of inspiring, entertaining and drawing the crowds ... [so they] to come back again.

“Hopefully this will the template of how we go forward in our summer series. So, it’s a really exciting place to be in.

“From where we’ve come from, making my debut at Louth... it’s such a lovely club ground but [compared] to people making their debut at Trent Bridge…

“To take a step back and realise where we’ve come from and where we’ve been and hopefully where we’re going is a really special moment.”

England players first received central contracts in 2014, and over the winter Sciver-Brunt was signed for an eye-watering £320,000 to play in the inaugural Women’s Premier League in India – a tournament offering sums never before seen in the women’s game.

Australia have been the dominant force in women’s cricket for the last decade, holding the one-day World Cup and T20 World Cup trophies, and have not been beaten in the Ashes since the winter of 2013-14.

“I think this whole series will feel different,” Sciver-Brunt said. “We’ve got a fifth day for the first time which is brilliant.

“It’s always a really special occasion when we get the whites on again and we get the floppy hats on and things like that. It’s something that all the team looks forward to in the calendar.”

Under coach Jon Lewis, England have played an attacking style of cricket that Sciver-Brunt has branded “Jonball” – a reference to Bazball, played by their male counterparts – but she admitted there could be a change of tack against Australia.

Heather Knight in training at Trent Bridge this week (Reuters)

“Obviously we know Australia’s record and we know what good a team they are and we fully respect that,” Sciver-Brunt said.

“They’ve pushed us to need to be better ... and there’s no better challenge than trying to be your best against the best team in the world.

“So that’s meant that we’ve needed to make a change and do our best to hopefully go toe-to-toe with them.”

Former England captain Charlotte Edwards, who now coaches for the Southern Vipers, says the women’s cricketing landscape has undergone a profound change since her playing days.

“I played from the age of 12 until 16 ... all the female cricket I played was in a skirt, I made my England debut in a skirt when I was 16, and that was the first and only match I played in one, then when I was 17 we moved into trousers,” Edwards told The Independent.

“To think where we were... I paid for my own England blazer, it moved quite quickly, it was very amateur then and now the amount that gets paid to some of these players, the opportunities they have. Even at a regional level with the professional players and the support that they get, that’s the biggest difference for me.

“People ask me ‘are you envious of the new era?’ and the only thing I’m envious of is that I never got the opportunity to be the best player I could be, through the support and the resources.

“It’s not about the money, as an international sportsperson it’s just about being the best you can be and that’s not saying I didn’t have great coaches, but I didn’t have the time necessarily to do that training.

“Players now get all of that. as they should, and to be a part of that new system is also really special for me.”