The Women's Ashes

The Ashes or the Women's Ashes is the Women's Test cricket series between England and Australia. It is named after the more famous Ashes. The series was first played in 1934 and was the first ever women's Test series. It only became officially known as the Ashes in the 1998 series when an autographed bat was burned before the first Test at Lord's.

A total of 15 series have been played with 44 matches. There is no set length of the series with it varying between 1 and 5 Tests. It has only become a biennial series since 2001. Since then it has also been restricted to a 2 Test series.

In 2005, England won the Ashes for the first time in 42 years. When the English men won the 2005 Ashes and paraded through London on an open-topped bus, the English women followed them on a bus of their own, but it's not recorded whether this bus was open-topped.

In February 2007, England Women travelled to Australia to defend the Ashes, doing so successfully by winning the one-off Test in Bowral by six wickets.

Results Summary

References

* [http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/cricket/news/1998/07/20/womens_ashes/ News Report of start of 1998 series]

ee also

*Australian women's cricket team in England in 2005 (which includes a full description of the 2005 women's Ashes series)
*The Ashes (the male equivalent)