 Clare Connor's side will face an exciting new challenge |
The England Women's cricket team will break new ground in August by playing the first international Twenty20 match. They will face New Zealand using the same format as the Twenty20 Cup, which was launched successfully in county cricket during the summer.
The venue and date have yet to be confirmed, but it will form part of the NatWest Women's Series.
"The girls are very excited - we saw the impact it had on the men's game last season," said Charlotte Edwards.
Twenty20 cricket has yet to find a place in the men's international calendar.
International Cricket Council spokesman Brendan McClements said last year: "There is no suggestion that there will be an international version of Twenty20."
But he acknowledged: "In development areas, a third generation game could attract new participants."
For the England and Wales Cricket Board, however, it offers another opportunity to raise the profile of the women's team.
One round of the annual Super Fours tournament will be played under Twenty20 rules to enable the players to familiarise themselves with the format prior to taking on the White Ferns.
And Edwards, for one, cannot wait.
 Charlotte Edwards has hit three one-day international hundreds |
"It's going to be exciting to go in the nets and practice shots you wouldn't normally play.
"I imagine there'll be a lot pressure on you as well, you've got to go out there and play your shots and be prepared to give your wicket up as well.
"It will definitely help improve our fielding and in the bowling, you're going to have be bowling pretty good lines to keep the runs down," she told the BBC.
"I enjoyed every minute of it last season watching the men's stuff and I'm very excited about playing it."
More than 250,000 spectators watched the various Twenty20 Cup games and Edwards is aware it offers the potential to attract a larger audience to the women's game.
"We just need to get people along watching us and then maybe following us through to the 50 overs stuff. I think it's a fantastic idea and something that, I think, the other countries will probably envy.
"The ECB are doing all they can to help raise the profile and things like this are a great way of doing it."
MMIX
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
