ENGLAND’S women may have won their version of the Ashes last summer but as far as some people are concerned, the role of women in cricket is not very serious and they should be kept to making the teas.

That, at least, is the inference that Somerset took when their poor performance in a men’s game was likened in a text message by a rival to girls’ cricket.

The ECB’s interim discipline commission, chaired by Gerard Elias QC, has received a complaint from Somerset, supported by the ECB executive director of women’s cricket, concerning an alleged sexist remark by Neil Davidson, the Leicestershire chairman. After their convincing victory in a floodlit match on August 31, he is claimed to have sent an unsigned text message to Giles Clarke, his counterpart, which read: “I can see why Somerset is the home of girls’ cricket.”

The commission is expected to pass judgment on the matter this week. The County Ground in Taunton was officially launched as the home of the women’s game last month, when a Test match was held between England and India. Somerset, who also regard the comment as lacking in common courtesy in the aftermath of victory, emphasise that they have no quarrel with Leicestershire CCC.

They reported Davidson’s message, sent from his mobile phone, to the ECB, not least because it was read initially by several women. The club’s committee has the backing of Gill McConway, the executive director of women’s cricket, who said: “This is a pathetic statement from a small-minded person.

“I am very pleased Somerset have taken this seriously. We have been fully integrated into the ECB since 1998 and this is not the sort of comment the governing body can allow to be said flippantly. The old boys who have not moved with the times will be surprised at the standard of our play.

“Somerset have been so helpful in making Taunton the home of our game and so supportive that I can imagine they thought the comment was pretty sick. But our players will not need motivation from this to keep them going.”

A spokesman for Leicestershire said that Davidson intended the message to be a joke. “It was meant as a light-hearted comment and not an insult to women,” the spokesman said. “The only people who are going to look silly if this matter proceeds are the ECB. The chairman is trying to focus on a more important issue, which is preventing smaller counties from being squeezed out of business.”

Davidson, a prominent businessman, was involved in another controversy earlier in the season when he told the Leicestershire and Rutland Cricket Board representative, who oversees the women’s game as well as junior age groups, to vacate his office at Grace Road. He has since been reinstated.

The latest allegation comes after an article by Davidson that appeared on the Leicestershire website last month, advocating that Clarke and Paul Russell, the chairman of Glamorgan, should stand down from the ECB management board as the two non-Test match ground representatives, given that Taunton had become the designated home of women’s cricket and that Cardiff had been accredited Test status.

“Part of [Somerset’s] pitch to achieve that status was the redevelopment of the ground, which meets more general criteria for hosting international matches,” Davidson wrote. “It does not take much of a leap in imagination to predict that, once in place, Taunton will be bidding for international matches. It could be interpreted that at least two counties are making a dash to join the ‘major match hosting’ club to survive. Against that background, there is a strong argument that both Russell and Clarke should stand down.”

Somerset deny that their £60 million redevelopment project, which commences this autumn, is being undertaken for that reason.