Women’s cricket has a history that we haven’t come across much; it stretches back to 250 years or considerably more. Technically the first-ever match played was between maids of two prominent villages in England. Did you know that originally the cricket deliveries were bowled underarm and the overarm bowling action was pioneered in the early 19th century by Christina Willes, sister of John Willes to avoid being trapped in her skirt frequently. Round-arm action was devised by Tom Walker in 1790’S. Thorough knowledge of my research, I learned that initially the women’s cricket was played more in England and Australia (now you know the rivalry makes more sense), which further proliferated to several countries.
Lets revisit the good old days
- First women’s Cricket club was formed in Yorkshire, named “White Heather Club”
- Women’s Cricket Association was founded in 1926, playing the first test match where England takes on Australia in 1934-35. (initially played for 3 days which further moved into 4 days of play)
- The International Women’s Cricket Council was formed to coordinate the cricket matches played regularly worldwide.
- Indian Team or we say Women in Blue, made their test debut against ENG in 1932. Though cricket had been introduced for women in India by the English and Parsis in the early 20th century, a national team was formed only in 1973, after the establishment of the Women’s Cricket Association of India (WCAI)- Formed by Mahendra Kumar Sharma. Before their first World Cup, India’s national team had already played official Test matches against the West Indies and New Zealand.
- In 1978, India hosted the Women’s Cricket World Cup, with four participating teams, This was the first time the country hosted an international cricket championship.
- Betty Wilson was the first player male or female to record a century and 10 wickets in a test match.
If we look into the facts straight, this 2019 world cup was not the first time when the English country won a world cup it was when the first Women’s world cup was held back in 1973-England *EVEN BEFORE THE MEN’S WORLD *, the English women won the title in the inaugural championship. The home of cricket ‘LORDS’ wasn’t the venue for world cup finale because women weren’t allowed to play there. (It wasn’t until 1976 that the MCC granted permission for a women’s match – and still, the players weren’t officially allowed to walk through the Long Room on their way to the pitch). Interestingly, Pakistan’s Sajjida shah is the youngest player to appear in international cricket playing at the age of just 12 years.
The Women’s Cricket Association handed over the running of women’s cricket in England to ECB (England Cricket Board). In 2005 after 8th Women’s World Cup the International Women’s Cricket Council was officially integrated under ICC. They made ICC Women’s Cricket Committee to look after all related matters. As part of ICC’s initiative to promote Women’s cricket worldwide, The women’s Cricket Association of India was merged with BCCI in 2006. The 2009 World cup, 1st held under ICC was also won by England Women’s cricket team, First of either sex to win an ICC Tournament.
Women have beaten male teams to several milestones in all the formats. Mentioning some of them, Females were the first to play an International T20 match (NZvsENG). The first tie in ODI was also between the women’s team, a match hosted by N.Z. Female wicket keepers were the first to record 6 dismissals in ODI (NZ’s Sarah Illingworth and India’s Venkatachar Kalpana both accounting for 6 bats-women on the same day in 1993 W.C). Belinda Clark former Australian captain was first female cricketer to score double ton in ODI (unbeaten 229) against Denmark in 1997-W.C. England’s Bats-women Claire Taylor was the first women in 120 years to get honored in prestigious Wisden five cricketers of the year. I would like to appreciate these Indian women cricket reformers.
Shantha Rangaswamy being the first Indian women cricketer to score century she was also the first test captain of our side. She was honored with Arjuna Award.
We all are familiar with famous Mumbai girl Diana Edulji who has achieved great feat in cricket and was rewarded with Arjuna award and Padma shree. she is a member of the Supreme Court-appointed committee of administrators at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and an outspoken voice in the women’s game.
Anju Jain is the only women player to play for 4 consecutive world cups, was awarded with Arjuna award for her great achievements.
*COMING TO STARS OF 21st CENTURY*
Anjum Chopra can be called the first ‘star’ of Indian Women’s Cricket. She is tremendously talented multi-sporting athlete and a multi talented person in general. She was the First women to play 100 ODI’s for India. She was also rewarded with prestigious Arjuna and Padma Shree awards.
The Bengali girl Jhulan Goswami is a perfect example of how women can achieve anything they want. She leads world cricket rankings like a boss; she is the only Indian women cricketer so far to be awarded by ICC as Women Cricketer of The Year in 2007.
Well Known Worldwide Mithali Raj has led the country in the most prestigious way. She is the only captain under whose leadership India reached world cup finals twice (2005 & 2017). She has also been honored with prestigious awards.
These women have led the franchise of their sides very well and depict how rich and varied culture of cricket has been in the past, how we possess strong roots and talent is no short of excellence. I hope you are liking the content. I’ve decided to put up a series of blogs on topic *FEMALES IN CRICKET*. Stay tuned for the next part :p
SOURCES : Wikipedia
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