 "Women's Ashes 2023: Viewership, attendance records shattered in England")
After very successful stories of women's cricket from The Hundred, Women’s T20 World Cups in 2020 and 2023 and the Women’s Premier League (WPL), a bilateral series has surpassed all expectations as Women’s Ashes attracted 1,10,000 people to the stadiums across seven multi-format games. This was 4.5 times more than the attendance for the previous Women’s Ashes in England in 2019.
Staggering viewership of Women’s Ashes
Not only the stadium attendance, but even the TV viewership of the live matches and the subsequent highlights on digital streams reached new heights. According to England Cricket Board’s latest tweet, the Women’s Ashes broadcast recorded 5.3 million views, which is more than double the viewership recorded in 2019.
Live matches are not enough in this digital age and people always turn to YouTube shorts, Instagram reels and highlight videos. Courtesy of the digital platforms, a staggering 47 million views were generated for videos involving the Women’s Ashes matches.
Quality cricket attracts people!
The reason given by many websites and journalists across England for such high viewership and stadium attendance is the quality of cricket played by the two teams. Australia won the only Test by 89 runs on the final day after both teams scored more than 400 in their first innings.
More From This Section
This was also the match that saw Tammy Beaumont score a Test double hundred, becoming only the eighth woman in the history of the game to achieve the feat. Australia were helped by Ashleigh Gardner’s brilliant eight-wicket haul to win the match which was heading to a draw otherwise.
The T20I series was a closely contested one as well in which the English came from being 0-1 down to win it 2-1 and carry the momentum forward to win the first match of the ODI series. The ODIs were mostly decided in the last overs as well with England winning the first one by two wickets and Australia returning the favour in the second one by a three-wicket win.
With more than 250 runs scored in each ODI, the level of competition was at the highest and England, who have been at the receiving end in ties between the two countries since 2017, finally found themselves at the top, giving their fans more reasons to watch them play.
Women’s ODI series sold out for the first time
Courtesy of a brilliant turn-around in the T20I series, English fans expected a come-from-behind Ashes victory by their women and as a result thronged the stadiums in Bristol, Southampton and Taunton for the three ODIs to make it the first bilateral ODIs series in Women’s game to be sold out.
Even as England won both the ODIs and T20I series by a margin of 2-1, Australia managed to retain the Women's Ashes. For winning the only Test, Australia got four points while the limited overs game had two points for each win. As result both the teams finished on 8 points each. But becasue Australia had won the previous Ashes in 2021, they got to retain it.
Even as England won both the ODIs and T20I series by a margin of 2-1, Australia managed to retain the Women's Ashes. For winning the only Test, Australia got four points while the limited overs game had two points for each win. As result both the teams finished on 8 points each. But becasue Australia had won the previous Ashes in 2021, they got to retain it.
The more impressive part of the sell-out news is that one-third of the crowd attending the matches were women themselves, indicating that the women's game is getting popular and moving in an upward direction.