England Women’s players are set to miss a second consecutive round of domestic fixtures, with the ECB prioritising an ongoing training camp featuring an intra-squad match over county cricket.
The Women's One-Day Cup began on April 11, but several England internationals, including Nat Sciver-Brunt, Charlie Dean, Lauren Bell and Mahika Gaur, were unavailable for the opening round of games on Saturday. The ECB placed the players under workload management with the T20 World Cup coming up later this year.
The board have now withdrawn all the England players from the next round of the 50-over competition, scheduled for tomorrow (April 15), as reported by English journalist Cameron Ponsonby. They are involved in an ongoing camp and took part in an intra-squad match on Tuesday, which effectively ruled them out of the second round of the competition.
"Genuinely bewildering management of England women atm," Ponsonby posted on X on April 14. "*ANOTHER* intra-squad match is happening today as part of *another* training camp. The result is all England players won't be available for tomorrow's round of domestic fixtures in favour of an internal net."
This follows a similar intra-squad training camp held last month as England build towards the upcoming home ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.
Originally planned in Abu Dhabi, the camp was relocated to Pretoria after the initial trip was cancelled due to safety concerns stemming from conflict in the Middle East and subsequent airspace closures. The camp formed part of a broader winter preparation structure, with intra-squad matches used to simulate competitive scenarios.
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