Women's World Test Championship: Smriti Mandhana backs Women's WTC but Engand's Tammy Beaumont feels 'long way to go'

India vicecaptain Smriti Mandhana on Tuesday welcomed the idea of organising a Womens World Test Championship but England veteran Tammy Beaumont said it would be unfair to have such a competition when only three countries are playing regularlyIn mens Test cricket the ICCs World Test Championship began with 20192021 as the first twoyear cycle It is currently in its third edition The womens game however does not have any such competitionThere is a huge disparity among womens teams in terms of playing Test cricket as only England Australia and India have played in the longest format regularly even though there is a long gapI would love to be a part of the World Test Championship but that is for the boards and the ICC to decide Mandhana told the media ahead of Indias training session here on TuesdayHaving watched a lot of mens Test cricket and championships that would be really exciting to be a part of something of that sort But as I said that would be their administrators decision she addedIndia and England will faceoff in a oneoff Test starting here on Thursday at the DY Patil Stadium It will be after two years that the hosts will be playing a TestFor England the gap has been of about six months since they last played Tests taking on Australia in the opening game of the Womens Ashes which they lost by 89 runsAlso ReadNo batting remedy in sightThe 32yearold Beaumont who has featured in eight Tests since her debut 10 years ago says it is still not the right time for a Womens World Test Championship given the existing disparity in terms of number of matches playedI do not think it is quite the right time if I am honest At the moment there is only three or four nations that are playing Test match cricket regularly and potentially there are only three or four governing bodies that can afford to host womens Test cricket Beaumont saidThe England batter said she does not expect ICC to be investing into any such tournamentThat will have to be a very big investment from the ICC I do not think they are probably willing to put into she saidBeaumont advocated the countries to have more matches during a bilateral tour and get other nations like Pakistan Sri Lanka and New Zealand playing more womens Test cricketThey are still trying to develop the T20 game across the globe the way you have seen Thailand and other countries come into T20 cricket I think that should stay as a focus however I would love to see more nations do maybe like a multiformat series like we do in the Ashes she saidAlso Read The man in white is not always rightSo say India come over and we do Test match ODI and T20Is and get an overall winner from that We do that from South Africa and New Zealand and all those teams and build from there One day I would love to see a World Test Championship but at the moment I do not think it would be fair when you have India Australia and England have played a lot of Tests in the last four years but other teams like Pakistan Sri Lanka and New Zealand have not played any Test cricket in the last 15 years Beaumont addedThe imbalance is still there we need to build it from ground up a little bit longer and definitely have many Tests said the England opening batterWith agency inputs