Women’s cricket needs all the support that it can get

Where does women’s cricket go from here? Image source: 1.

While Virat Kohli’s wrist spinners were busy bamboozling the South African batsmen and grabbing the headlines in the papers back home, the Indian women’s cricket team notched up a significant victory of their own. Part of ICC’s Women’s Championship, the Indian women landed on South African shores around the same time the men were playing an ODI series of their own. Away from the glare of cameras and media attention (more on this shortly), the ladies wrapped up the 3 match ODI series in quick time, walloping their South African counterparts in the first two matches at Kimberley. En route to the series win a match to spare, opener Smriti Mandhana scored her career best and Jhulan Goswami became the first bowler to amass 200 ODI wickets. In this historical diamond mining town, the Indian gems shone the brightest.

It wasn’t so long ago that these women were the cynosure of sporting attention, albeit for a short while. On a cheerful day in July 2017, the Indian women’s cricket team locked horns with their English counterparts for the title of the ICC Women’s World Cup at London. Chasing a total of 229 in 50 overs, the team stayed in the hunt until the 45^th over when Anya Shrubsole snared both Veda Krishnamurthy and Jhulan Goswami to induce panic in the ranks. The Indian women lost by an agonizing 9 runs, but won plenty of hearts, new-found fans and viewers in the process. But what enabled this in the first place? A television broadcast.

Speaking after that final, Mithali Raj rued the lack of experience in the Indian team, and felt it was a factor when push came to shove. She was right. In her 18 year career, she has played only 189 ODIs and 10 test matches. Even a player of her experience had only played only ~10 ODI matches a year; what hope did the greenhorns have? Between the South Africa series and the World cup, their international calendar was barren. In fact, a year ago, this team won a quadrangular series in South Africa last year (before the World Cup). After securing the win, Mithali Raj bemoaned the lack of television coverage for the women’s game:

“Back in India, we do have a lot of people coming and watching the matches. It is important that we market the sport. If we are playing a series, or a bilateral series, it is important that it is broadcaster because a lot of people back home are so inquisitive to know the result of the game. They do follow it over the net, but if it is broadcasted, it can make a huge difference for the profile of the game as well as for the players.”

One year later, on the back of a fantastic World Cup campaign and a sufficiently long notice period, little seems to have changed. While the ongoing men’s series has had plenty of airtime, pre-match and post-match analyses, highlights packages and so on, the women’s matches have had no broadcast. The official BCCI page also did not have commensurate coverage. Hardcore fans had to resort to scorecard updates from the BCCI Women twitter feed to satiate themselves. Needless to say, it was an unsatisfactory experience.

Imagine watching a cliff-hanger season finale of a rivetting, award-winning drama series. There is plenty of buzz about the new twist on the internet and everyone can’t wait for the upcoming season to see how it plays out. You, along with many others, wait for months for the new season’s opening episode to resolve the mystery. Except, in this case, there is no forthcoming episode; only a break in continuity which kills the very momentum that had been built up all this while on the back of historic results. And just like that, the lack of a broadcast has robbed them of a chance to continue their story with the fans they had gained in mid-2017. And it is these women who will be devastated by another recent body blow–cricket missing its date with the 2022 Commonwealth games.

Women’s cricket was originally penciled in the 2022 edition, which is scheduled during the months of July and August. But the Commonwealth Games Federation wanted to include only those sporting disciplines which would be played by both men and women. Meaning, this edition would clash with many domestic (men’s) T20 commitments which has become the economic lifeline of cricket boards. Sadly, the ones to bear the brunt will be the women who will once again have to contend with a lack of a headlining focal point to their fixtures.

The Commonwealth Games is a relic (and I mean this in a good way) from the times of the British Empire involving athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The game of cricket is a recognized sport and has featured only once—at the 1998 Commonwealth games held in Malaysia. No doubt, a Commonwealth Games medal might not feature high on the agenda of professional male cricketers who might count marquee bilateral series and the World cup as the blue chip tournaments. But it must also be remembered that ten years ago, a newly-minted IPL trophy or a World T20 title were worth nothing in terms of historic value. Yet, that didn’t stop teams and players from partaking in the activity, enriching it, and carving a history for themselves and for the sport.

The Indian women don’t have their own IPL, and it is not for a lack of asking; only a few play in the Women’s Big Bash League. Domestic T20 leagues mainly enlist domestic players and top available freelancing international players. It is safe to say that the Indian women will not feature in big numbers in the WBBL unless they become accomplished T20 players, which once again points in the direction of fixtures and scheduling. But a bigger point is unless these competitions have a structure over multiple levels which are financially self-sustaining (like European football), they would not provide an opportunity to scores of cricketing aspirants of varying ability from different countries.

On the other hand, a focal point of an Olympics provides significant funding from sporting and government sources and bring much needed attention to the sport. An Olympic-style football participation model would have taken care of levelling the playing field to some extent. This will no doubt be a lot more inclusive in introducing the sport at the global stage and go a long way in popularizing the sport and adding more fans to the game. Another case in point is the recent Khelo India games, which has showcased the best of upcoming talent on nationwide television.

Given these traditional difficulties, women’s cricket should not suffer from a lack of institutional support and needs all the help that it can get to compete on even terms. The first of many steps has to come from the powers that be like BCCI and ICC. A little bit of planning, foresight and institutional support will no doubt go a long way in game accessible to fans and setting the stage for a robust women’s cricketing ecosystem. Surely the world’s richest cricket board can spare a few more rupees and grey cells for this cause?

Disclaimer: The image used in this article in not the property of this blog. It has been used for representational purposes only. The copyright, if any, solely rests with its respective owners.