The Women’s One Day Cup is at its sharp end, with just three rounds left to contest. While The Blaze and Hampshire have run away with the first two knockout qualification spots, four teams, in pursuit of the third, went into yesterday’s fixtures separated by a single point.

However, none of the England players contracted to those four sides were available for this round of fixtures. Maia Bouchier and Freya Kemp were made available to Hampshire as they attempt to chase down automatic qualification to the final, and Lauren Filer was made available for Durham – although they had played an extra game, so didn’t actually feature in this round.

Of the other 10 England contracted players who have played international cricket this summer – excluding the now-retired Heather Knight and Tammy Beaumont – four are carrying injuries, and the other six were rested from county action to manage their workloads.

When she took up the job as England head coach last summer, Charlotte Edwards pledged that, under her, players would play more county cricket. At the start of the summer, the T20 World Cup group were taken away from their counties for a series of intra-squad training camps, and a camp with the British Army. Between that and players now being rested at the tail-end of the season, that resolution seems to have been shortlived.

Workload management is a key part of making sure players maintain their fitness and go into major periods of high-intensity cricket fresh and at the peak of their powers. However, England will not play another international match for six months. While some of those rested players will play WBBL, that competition doesn’t start until the end of October. With no overlap between franchise cricket and the domestic summer, the WBBL should have no bearing on whether players represent their counties six weeks before heading south for the winter.

Managing players' workloads also comes into play after busy periods of cricket. England women have had a high intensity summer compared to their last few, with two bilateral series before the T20 World Cup, as well as the Test match against India four days after the final, and The Hundred taking up all of August.

Nevertheless, three of the six non-injured players kept out of county action this week were rested from the recent ODI series against Ireland. They include Amy Jones, whose place as keeper in England’s XI is under threat from Alice Capsey’s newly minted gloves. Jones last played a game of professional cricket almost a month ago, and getting in a couple of big innings before the winter would likely boost her chances of retaining her position.

Equally, it’s worth examining what ‘high-intensity’ periods actually look like. Unlike the men’s schedule, there is no multi-day competition for women, meaning that at highest intensity, a female bowler will send down 10 overs in a match.

This summer, Sophie Ecclestone has played four 50-over matches, two for England and two for Lancashire. Her T20 workload has been higher, mostly because of the T20 World Cup, totaling 19 matches over a two month period. Taking into account the Test match at Lord’s, which lasted one session into its fourth day, Ecclestone has had 27 playing days this summer, with 151 days having passed since she played her first match of the season in April. That’s one game every five and half days, far from a high-intensity workload.

There’s also a glaring contrast between the availability of England women players and their male counterparts. Having joined up with the Test squad at Edgbaston, every player left out of the XI – apart from Sonny Baker who will join the Lions squad tomorrow – was released back to their counties for the ongoing County Championship round. Shoaib Bashir was bowling by the end of the day having made the short trip up to Derby.

Last year at women’s T20 Blast finals day, neither Nat Sciver-Brunt or Amy Jones featured for The Blaze, after England finished their international summer five days before the biggest day on the women’s county calendar. Blaze captain, Kistie Gordon, emphasised that it was “the player’s choice” in her press conference following her side’s loss in the semi-final. Ten minutes later, the ECB issued a statement clarifying that both players had been rested to manage schedules and workloads.

Besides commitment to county cricket, there’s a performance interest that England players feature for their domestic sides as much as possible. Not only do England players beef up the quality of the county competition, but the varying quality of international teams they play makes county cricket all the more important in player development terms.

Speaking on Wisden Women’s Cricket Weekly podcast, Lauren Winfield-Hill emphasised this particular point: “If you look at the standard of the domestic game and you get all the best players available, it’s a higher standard than international cricket against some of those lesser teams.”

Alice Capsey told WWCW podcast at the start of the summer that she was “learning on the job” playing 50 over cricket for England. She’s played in four of Surrey’s One Day Cup matches this summer, and won’t be available if Surrey qualify for the Eliminator. Equally, one would assume, given that she was picked to keep in England’s ODI series against Ireland ahead of county captain Kira Chathli, that it wouldn’t be beyond the ECB to have a quiet word to facilitate some extra keeping overs for her.

Whichever way you try and swing it, keeping players out of county action ahead of a barren international calendar over the winter stinks. No one benefits in the long term, not the players, the counties, or, ultimately, England.