In terms of crowds, England women have enjoyed a record summer with record attendances during the T20 World Cup and during the Lord’s Test, but both have been struggling against the football World Cup, the men’s Tests and Wimbledon in the wider sporting world.

They even competed directly against the men’s cricket team on Saturday, who played a T20 against India at 14:30 BST.

Then, on the third day of the Test, just hours after former captain Heather Knight’s retirement made headlines, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced that men’s head coach Brendon McCullum had been sacked as Test coach.

“I think it’s a bit embarrassing,” former England player Alex Hartley told BBC Test Match Special on Sunday.

“The ECB says ‘we treat everyone equally’, but it has taken them too long to play here.

“Fifty years later, we are playing in our first Test match and now the headlines have completely disappeared.

“This game comes down to the fact that England are not going to win, but there is a Test match to save, it is a historic moment in itself. There is a [men’s] ODI series starting on Tuesday, I completely understand that they want to publish the news before then, but I’m sorry, if you say that you respect the game and want it to improve, then don’t pay lip service to it, show it and say ‘we’ll save this news until Tuesday morning’ or seven o’clock on Monday night.”

ECB chief executive Richard Gould told the BBC the announcement had been considered during the women’s Test and referred to an “extraordinary” T20 World Cup campaign in which “women’s football in England is stronger than ever”.

England’s players have little time to think about the Test defeat, much like the World Cup, as they immediately turn their attention to The Hundred, which begins on July 21.

The ECB franchise tournament has played a huge role in the growth of women’s cricket in the country since its inception in 2021, attracting a healthy crowd during the summer holidays and being played in double-headers alongside the men’s games.

And that is the reality, that short format cricket is the moneymaker in women’s sport. The disparity between India, Australia, England and the rest in financial terms makes it understandable to see why those other boards would want to host Test cricket at such a huge financial loss.

“My view is that we will see fewer countries playing Test cricket, but the quality and danger of those Test matches will be greater,” Todd Greenberg, chief executive of Cricket Australia, told BBC Sport.

“We have to get comfortable with that. Women’s cricket has the biggest opportunity to transform the game and attract new people to watch it – we saw that recently with the World Cup.”

“I would focus less on them playing Test cricket and playing the format that generates the most eyeballs, the biggest commercial returns so we can put that back into the game.”

Additional reporting by Timothy Abraham.