The first edition of the Women's T20 Blast has sparked renewed calls for player safety, with a packed schedule leading to players reportedly 'driving knackered' late into the night before playing in back-to-back games.
The inaugural edition of the women's tournament is currently nearing its halfway point, each team having played five out of their six group stage fixtures. Player safety concerns have been raised previously in the men's competition due to the hectic schedule which sometimes requires sides to play fixtures on consecutive days, or with only one day in between which is taken up by travel.
While the men's competition is split into two groups, roughly divided on the North-South regions, the Tier One women's competition is played across one group of eight teams, with Durham the most northerly and Somerset and Hampshire the most Southerly. In order to accomodate double-headers, which are a marquee feature of the new women's domestic set-up, the women's schedule roughly fits in line with the men's, although sometimes with greater travel distance in between fixtures. This has lead to logistical challenges for counties to overcome, with players often required to travel long distances in between matches.
“It can be pretty hectic,” said Lauren Winfield-Hill, speaking on the Wisden Women's Cricket Weekly podcast. “In the first game we played away against Hampshire down south, it was a three-hour journey back to Chelmsford after the game. Then you get in and it's nearly midnight and you're trying to decompress a bit and you're knackered, and you're driving knackered as well.
“You're playing a game where you're trying to concentrate for three or four hours and then if you have a three or four hour journey after, you're concentrating again on that. It's pretty relentless and it's not safe. But you can't always have a hotel stay after a game because it depends where you are the next day or even the day after that. If you've got matchday minus one the next day or you're traveling again the day after that, it's not always possible to stay after the games. It's certainly busy and congested this year.”
Some teams are affected by the tight schedule more than others. Lancashire play four of the 15 back-to-back Blast matches on consecutive days during their season, including a hectic three-day period where they will travel to The Oval to play Surrey on June 18, before playing Birmingham Bears in Leicester at 2:30pm the next day ahead of making the trip back up to Old Trafford.
There have also been concerns raised regarding the schedule for the Women's T20 Cup, which was also played for the first time this year. With 37 sides contesting the competition across the country, one set of fixtures required Warwickshire to travel to Devon on May 17 for a match the following day, before playing Hampshire at Arundel the day after and travelling home.
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According to data from the PCA, there has been a 150 per cent increase in back-to-back T20 fixtures this season compared to last year's Charlotte Edwards Cup, with 82 per cent of women's players believing there should be at least one day in between games.
Speaking in November last year, Lancashire bowler and PCA rep Phoebe Graham said: “I’m really looking forward to playing in more double headers. A third of our fixtures are on the same day as the men which is awesome for the game and I love playing at Emirates Old Trafford.
“It does come with a caveat that four of the 14 fixtures are back-to-back which means we are potentially compromising performance. Three of those four fixtures are standalone games, including at least two hours travel between fixtures. There could be more thought behind the schedule with player welfare in mind.”
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