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Women's Ashes Hub

The rivalry resumes January 12

Test players from the first Australia-England women's match in 1935 // National Library Australia

Before the days of Ellyse Perry and Heather Knight being splashed across billboards promoting the Women's Ashes, the likes of Margaret Peden and Betty Archdale were putting in the groundwork for the most intense rivalry in the women's game. 

That rivalry began in 1934 when the English women's team travelled by boat to Australia for a three-match Test series played across Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.  

However, a trophy wasn't created for the series and the term 'Ashes' was not associated with the contest.  

Archdale, the first captain of the England team stressed that, “We are not here for any Ashes but merely to play cricket.”  

England, who played matches against women’s teams from Western Australia, Victoria and NSW on their tour, won the first and second Tests, while the third Test was a draw. It meant England had won the series as they headed off on a return sea voyage home, via New Zealand, in January 1935. 

The Women’s Ashes have evolved significantly since those early matches. As the women's game continued to grow in both England and Australia, so too did demand for a Women's Ashes trophy.  

It wasn't until 1998, 54 years after the first Test between the Australian women and the English women, that the Australian Cricket Board (now Cricket Australia) and the England & Wales Cricket Board – which had just recently integrated the country’s Women's Cricket Association into the organisation – came together to officially coin the Women's Ashes and create a trophy.  

In a ceremony at the Harris Garden inside Lord’s, a bat signed by the two competing teams, a copy of the Women’s Cricket Association (WCA) constitution and the rules book were burnt, with the Ashes of the items sealed in a 300-year-old yew tree trophy. 

In 2013, with increasing momentum around white-ball formats for the women's game, a decision was made to transform the Women's Ashes into a multi-format, points-based contest that would include three T20Is and three ODIs alongside a single Test match.  

Along with the format shift, the trophy design was also redeveloped in 2013 with the original trophy mounted in the centre of a larger frame. 

The advent of the multi-format series, combined with the ever-increasing professionalism and exposure of the women's game have made the biannual series one of the most hotly anticipated fixtures of the cricket calendar. 

Australia have held the upper hand in the rivalry in recent times, having held the Women's Ashes for five successive series since their win in England in 2015.  

However, after England staged an epic comeback to draw the 2023 Women's Ashes series, the 2025 edition to be held in Australia promises to be a hard-fought contest. 

The history. The rivalry. The bragging rights. The Ashes.