Watch live coverage of the four-day England-India women’s test match, live on Sky Sports Cricket from Wednesday; Click on the video below to see the most memorable moments from Sky Sports’ 25 years covering women’s cricket
Sky Sports celebrates 25 years of covering women’s cricket in 2021 by showing more games live than ever, starting with the test match between England and India on Wednesday.
Sky Sports is committed to showing 52 live women’s cricket games this year, which is more than double the previous mark of 24 in 2019.
Click on the video above to see some of the most memorable moments from Sky Sports’ 25 years covering women’s cricket and read on …
The first time Sky showed women’s cricket was on June 16, 1996, when England played New Zealand at Leicester in the second international match of a day in their series. Debbie Hockley scored 75, leading New Zealand to a 56-run win, with Charlotte Edwards still a month away from Charlotte Edwards’ international debut. Edwards would continue to earn 309 caps in all formats.
Two years later, it was Ashes’ first clash when England met Australia in Derby. Australia ran out of winners this time by 64 runs, with future commentator Mel Jones scoring 58.
The climax of the 1999 season saw Clare Connor, future head of women’s cricket at the ECB, hit a hat-trick at the ODI against India.
The first T20 international match, male or female, took place in Hove in 2004 between England and New Zealand. It was a close finish, with the tourists emerging victorious by nine races. And three years later, Sky cameras were there to watch Amy Satterthwaite from New Zealand set a world record in bowling analysis at the time of 6-17 at T20I in Taunton.
In 2009, the year began with England winning the Women’s World Cup in Australia, defeating the hosts by four wickets in the final to win their first world title in 16 years.
England continued their dominance that summer, memorably defeating Australia in the Women’s World T20 semi-finals at The Oval thanks to a Claire Taylor-inspired run-chase. Two days later, they defeated New Zealand in the final at Lord’s to complete the ‘double’ of world titles.
In 2013, Sarah Taylor made one of the biggest sacks ever seen on Sky Sports to fire Jodie Fields at Hove, and a few days later the Women’s Ashes rallied with victory in the second T20I at Southampton.
Australia claimed back-to-back victories in the Women’s World T20 final over England in 2012 and 2014. Then in 2015, with the entire Women’s Ashes series streamed live for the first time, Australia won the Test match by 161 runs and reclaimed the Ashes two weeks later by winning the second T20I at Hove.
2017 was the most memorable year for women’s cricket on Sky. England beat Australia in their group match at the Women’s World Cup in Bristol by three runs, and won the World Cup final, beating India by nine runs in a thriller in front of a crowd full of Lord’s. Later that summer, the Kia Super League Finals Day was broadcast live on Sky for the first time.
It was another England vs Australia final at the Women’s World T20 in 2018, and again it was Australia who won it, this time by eight wickets.
2019 saw another Women’s Ashes series broadcast live on Sky Sports. The Test Match ended in a draw, while Australia’s Ellyse Perry lit up the ODI series with 7-22 at Canterbury, and Meg Lanning’s 133 not at Chelmsford was the highlight of the T20Is.
In 2020, on March 8, Australia won its fifth Women’s World T20 trophy by beating India against a record 86,174 crown at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Then that summer, the Southern Vipers won the inaugural Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, while England defeated the West Indies 5-0 in a T20I series, all live on Sky Sports.
Watch live coverage of the four-day England-India women’s test match, live on Sky Sports Cricket from Wednesday at 10.30am. M.
