India vice-captain Smriti Mandhana on Tuesday welcomed the idea of organising a World Test Championship in women’s Test cricket, but England veteran Tammy Beaumont said it would be unfair to have such a competition when only three countries are playing regularly.

In men’s Test cricket, the ICC’s World Test Championship began with 2019-2021 as the first two-year cycle. It is currently in its third edition. The women’s game, however, does not have any such competition.

There is a huge disparity among women’s 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 gap.

“I 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 India’s training session here on Tuesday.

“Having watched a lot of men’s Test cricket and champ­ionships, that (women’s WTC) would be really exciting to be a part of. But as I said, that would be their (administrators’) decision,” she added.

India and England will face off in a one-off Test starting here on Thursday at the DY Patil Stadium. It will be after two years that the hosts will be playing a Test.

For England, the gap has been of about six months since they last played Tests, taking on Australia in the opening game of the Women’s Ashes which they lost by 89 runs.

The 32-year-old Beaumont, who has featured in eight Tes­ts since her debut 10 years ago, says it is still not the right time for a women’s WTC given the existing disparity in terms of the number of matches played.

“I do not think it is quite the right time, if I am honest. At the moment there are 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 women’s Test cricket,” Beaumont said.

“That will have to be a very big investment from the ICC, I do not think they are probably willing to do it,” she added.

Beaumont advocated the countries to have more matches during bilateral tours and get other nations like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand to play more women’s Test cricket.

PTI