Have we seen the last of women's Test cricket?

The answer is, "Yes".

On Thursday, when the top brass of International Cricket Council (ICC) will meet during their board meeting in Kolkata, they will all agree to disagree on women's longer format of cricket. Yes, you have read it right: Women will only be allowed to play One Day Internationals and Twenty20 formats because women's Test cricket "lacks talent and appeal".

The ICC women's committee, which has some of former greats such as Shubhangi Kulkarni (India) and Belinda Clark (Australia) as its members, has given its nod to scrap the Test format from women's Future Tours Programme (FTP) in order to make it "commercially viable".

The proposal will come into the effect as soon as it is ratified by the ICC board on Thursday.

DNA has been told that this decision has not been reached in one meeting but the idea was first discussed during a meeting in Edinburgh last June and after further deliberations on Wednesday, the women's committee gave its green signal.

The present ICC chairman Shashank Manohar, who is also former preisdent of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), and ICC CEO David Richardson are also a part of this committee as ex-officios.

According to insiders, this decision was reached after considering the failure of women's Test cricket in attracting viewership. However, the official did admit that "ever since India started paying more attention to women's cricket, it is getting better by the day".

The official added, "Having said that, the committee felt that the standard of women's cricket isn't up to the mark compared to other formats. That was key factor in taking such a decision."

It has also been learnt that going forward, the ICC has made it clear that all future bilateral series will involve only three matches irrespective of whether it is T20Is or ODIs.

Why The Axe?

According to insiders, this decision was reached after considering the failure of women’s Test cricket in attracting viewership.