New Era For Women’s Cricket
Like most of the sports women’s cricket has been overshadowed by men’s, but there are signs that this is changing with time. Women’s cricket…. term hard to swallow for the majority of the population in India, except a few. Today, in 2020, looking at the progress of Indian women’s cricket team, many would argue that sounds odd. The origins of the first-ever women’s match go back to as early as the 18th century and have its own governing body International Women’s Council (IWCC). Yet, progress in the recognition and receiving the same attention as men’s cricket was established as late as 2015. The merger between IWCC AND ICC took place in 2005. However, the first tournament held by them for women’s was in 2009. It was in 2014, women’s cricket introduced a league system for one-day international cricket, which the ICC hopes to replicate in the men’s game. Better late than never as they say.
Growing up as a girl in Indian society and having a passion for cricket as much as the young boys were something extraordinary for the orthodox world around me. This had just changed during the last five years, in my early 20s, when gender equality came into the picture. During my teenage years, I grew up watching men’s cricket being the centre of every household. As girls my age were not inclined towards cricket, I usually ended up playing “gully cricket” with the boys. Boy’s initially used to find this ridiculous, me even asking to play the sport with them. “you’re a girl, what do you know anything about cricket?” “you know how to hold a bat?” “can you catch?” and so on. Coming from a very conservative myself, I found It hard to convince my parents to allow me to play professional cricket. The main reason behind this decision was because they never were aware of or had any exposure to women’s playing cricket at the same level as men.
In 2016, India hosted the men’s and women T20 cricket simultaneously. The International Cricket Council paid for all men’s team to fly business class, but women had to fly economy class as reported by The New York Times. ICC, the global governing body, differentiating between gender. If the world’s cricketing governance body is biased against the gender, how would be the respective boards of the world women’s cricket team be towards them in providing appropriate aid?
It was 2017, The ICC Women’s World Cup in England which drove the nation’s attention towards the national team. India had finished the second-best in this tournament. The Captain of Indian women’s team Mithali Raj led this team to the finals, and this changed the perception around women’s cricket in the country. The talent that this team already persisted got praised by the nation. Even if we didn’t lift the cup, this victory is a victory against breaking the stereotypes that exist in Indian society. Victory shatters many myths about women’s ability to achieve and excel in non-conventional streams. It is a victory for every young girl who dares to go against the norm.
The initial steps were taken by Cricket Australia to make their women’s team number in world rankings. They established themselves as the world leader on and off the field a long time ago. Since 2009, Australia’s women’s team has won four out of five International Cricket Council tournaments. There has been a 266 percent increase in maximum cricket earnings for the ladies since 2011–12, and the top Australian players are presently paid more than US $100,000 a year. Australia’s female cricketers were given the most significant pay rise in the history of women’s sport in 2017, and it has paid off. The new deal saw payments lifted from $7.5 million to $55.2 million, making the minimum retainer for an Australian representative $72,076.“Rewards happen quickly when there’s motivation, that should be obvious to other nations’ boards,” former Australian captain Blackwell said.
The England & Wales Cricket Board launched an ambitious action plan to transform women’s cricket that will include a new 40 professional contracts, in addition to the 21 international deals currently, to close the gap with Australia. Funding of £20m over two years, with potential to rise to £50m over five years, was announced in October 2019 as well as confirmation of the restructuring of domestic women’s cricket in a bid to streamline and improve the system. New Zealand also made efforts to keep up with Australia and reducing the gap. New Zealand Cricket increased salaries for top female cricketers to $80,000 per year, with 17 players contracted, while the Indian women’s team are also receiving full-time wages.
Possibly most important, Australia, which has been awarded the men’s and women’s Twenty20 world championships in October 2020, has chosen to decouple the two occasions, a sign that Cricket Australia accepts that the women’s cricket can flourish with its own. After cricket being included as part of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022, the ICC should outline specific regulations to reach minimum standards of a home board in terms of investing and resourcing.
Yet the obstacles remain, the pace of progress in the women’s game has been uneven throughout the world. India does not have men’s equivalent of the Indian Premier League, the lucrative Twenty20 league that began in 2008. With Australia commencing WBBL and England starting with The Hundred, BCCI is yet to decide upon this. Bangladesh and Pakistan, two cricket-mad nations, have been much slower to embrace the women’s game. The sums players are paid likewise change generally. Just in Australia and England are pay rates sufficiently high for players not to have second jobs alongside their cricket professions. The pay gap remains between the men’s and women’s game. In other words, that’s a whole separate topic to debate.
The world now has an exposure to women’s cricket as much as men’s, a few years ago, people didn’t pay it much attention. “Best time ever to be a woman in cricket” England captain Heather knight described. It requires a lot of self-belief, determination and confidence to pursue something which is not conventional, let that be in an Indian Society or elsewhere. I am immensely proud of the recognition women’s cricket has received in this decade. Gives me great joy to see the future generation of women will be getting more excellent opportunities and aid. It gives young girls the confidence to achieve cricket professionally. I only see women’s cricket moving upwards from this point. This is indeed a long overdue and welcoming change. Who says cricket is only a gentlemen’s game?
