Womens’ Cricket – More out of Cricket

As talked in my recent blogs, I covered about the roots and hurdles of women cricketers in that time. So let’s move on to what the current scenario holds up-to. Everything changes with time, that is the rule of the universe and it implements everywhere. Fortunately the evolution we waited for finally made its way to the women’s’ cricket .

Today, Indian women’s cricket has come a long way. The old hatchets have been buried and the current generation of players is undoubtedly famous. So far, the 21st Century has been an era of great advancement for women’s cricket in particular and women’s sport in general. In cricket, wealthy cricket boards have offered elite women players professional contracts. Professionalization has meant that standards have improved in women’s cricket. Contemporary women cricketers are fitter, stronger, more skillful and arguably more experienced cricketers than their predecessors from the 1960s and ’70s. They tour more often and more widely than ever before. They draw talent from more competitive domestic leagues than ever before. . After all, women’s cricket is more fashionable now than it has ever been.

2017 World Cup was a wake-up call for BCCI. From getting their due attention to lucrative deals from the famous brands, India team was successful to make a revolution by their performances and their dedication and hard work paid off. In the 2017 Women’s Cricket World Cup, India were the runners-up in the final against England. In the semi-final, Harmanpreet Kaur’s swashbuckling innings of 171 ensured that Australia lost—for the first time in Women’s World Cup history—to India. BCCI started taking more care of the Women’s Cricket and made the calendar for the ICC Women’s Championship (2017-20) where India had won against South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and England. On the domestic front, BCCI added Under 23 league and increased the number of games. With these increasing numbers of game, the domestic structure has also been evolving for fair talent hunt across the country.

Mithali Raj, captain of the current Test and ODI teams, says the situation today is much improved. However, there is some way to go still for the women’s game. “At the domestic level, the payment is not at the level of the men’s Ranji players but it is a work in progress; with the coming of the Women’s IPL (Indian Premier League), that situation should improve,” Raj says. Progress, she believes, will be slow but sure. “Things like player contracts and match fees are in place, but there is still room. In a few years, I think we will get to a situation where women’s cricket will be highly marketable and we will slowly get to the level of other international sports.” Our women in blue have been also featured in foreign cricket leagues like WBBL , KSL- Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana got the chance to play in Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) and Kia Super League (KSL). Along with them, Veda Krishnamurthy also featured in WBBL in one season.

In 2017, Australian Women’s Cricket Team aka the Southern Stars, have finally been recognized for their efforts in a sport that Australia has championed for the past decade. Cricket Australia has been the founding board to have taken this path-breaking step towards promotion of women’s cricket, by giving the women’s team equal pay. Recently the news has surfaced that England cricket board is planning to boost its investment by spending upto 50 million pounds to develop women’s cricket over the next 5 years in their country and that is huge and equally deserving to the talent.

Last year, one exhibition Women’s T20 Challenge was played in Mumbai, comprised of two teams – the Supernovas and the Trailblazers, Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana leading the teams respectively. Both the teams had a mix of Indian and International players. The international players like Suzie Bates, Sophie Devine, Meg Lanning, Ellyse Perry, Alyssa Healy, Danielle Wyatt etc. played with India’s Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Deepti Sharma, Poonam Yadav etc. The match was a test whether Women’s T20 challenge is feasible or not. The game had a nail- biting last-ball end and it was telecast by the board’s host broadcaster. Attendance was poor at the ground, starting might be a cause as the game had a 2 pm start and a consecutive men’s match scheduled on the same day. However the same T20 league was played this year, besides of a third team which was captained by Mithali Raj in Jaipur, and this gets improving. There was speculation during the 2019 IPL period that royal challengers have initiated a mixed- gender match being played in the country which could have been a big step towards the people’s perception of watching cricket but unfortunately, it didn’t happen and the reason is yet not clear behind its cancellation.

Recently, if you followed women’s cricket even a little bit you must have come across the news that the South Africa women’s team is here to play T20I’s and ODI’s and this has been such a positive. 5 T20I’s were played in Surat out of which a couple of matches were abandoned due to rains and what exemplary step was taken by BCCI to schedule the washed -out matches in rest days before the ODI’s. The attendance in Surat’s stadium was exceptionally impressive, the whole stadium was filled which clearly shows that our girls are on the right path and the talent is being appreciated.

In a landmark announcement, the BCCI has revised the annual central contract of Indian women cricketers, making it the highest ever annual retainer fee in the women’s category globally. The central contract, however is only the beginning of the golden period While the decision to include women cricketers in the central contract is a fresh start towards the success platform at an international level, this will not only improve women’s cricket infrastructure but will also add up to at the international level in terms of performance and parity. India is higher in terms of retainer fee with a contract signed under $76000 (Rs. 50 lakhs) for Grade A players. Witnessing the increasing number of advertisements, sponsor-ships and various other promotional opportunities for the players, the Indian Women’s team is fast gaining a fit and wealthy status amidst the global scenario.

So far the journey of women’s cricket has been a roller- coaster ride and its finally catching the right track. The good days are not so far and we must consider ourselves lucky to have to get the chance to witness such a positive development here and let’s appreciate all of it. Hope you are liking my blogs, Stay tuned for the final post of this series.

First ever Women's cricket played in history.

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.

First ever picture of National Indian Women's Cricket team with Indira Gandhi.

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 8^th 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, 1^st 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 21^st 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

Tag: Womens’ Cricket

FEMALES IN CRICKET – A WIND OF CHANGE

FEMALES IN CRICKET- OUR PAST