Women cricket on upswing after affiliation with ICC

Anjum Chopra
A ‘Gentleman’s game’! Cricket! Well the game was actually played by women way back in 1745, in Surrey, England. Women in long skirts played the game with a crooked bat and men used to lay bets on the contest. It has been a long journey for the women’s game and the men have taken it to a completely different level since inception.
Now International Cricket Council controls both the men’s & women’s game after merging in 2005. Since then the women’s game has been on an upswing. The matches are televised especially the world cups in more than 100 countries people get to see the sport played by the women also. Even though we cannot compare the reach of the sport for both men and women, nor the standing of women’s game and its impact to the audiences, but even then, there seems a silver lining. Especially as the T20 world cups (semis and finals) are played alongside the men’s games it serves as a great advert for women’s cricket. For the 1st time this tournament will be broadcasted on High definition technology by Star Cricket.
This is the 3rd time a world cup that is being held by India. 1978, 1997 were the previous 2 occasions. The host nation has not been able to push the tape; win any till now and the best ever finishes have been the runner up slot at the 2005 world cup in South Africa.  India is one of the four top ranked teams in the world. Good knowledge of the home conditions and with some experienced campaigners in the side they would fancy tipping the rest of the competition to the finish line this time.
This is my 7th women’s cricket world cup that I am involved in. The previous six being as a player in the Indian team. This occasion I am appointed as a technical consultant by cricket South Africa with their women’s team. It’s a parallel shift to my earlier role of being a player and a cricket analyst, sports caster. Imparting the experience and helping players realize their potential and targets gives a different high. This is the first time in the world in women’s game that an International player is assisting a different international team. Till date it was only foreign players and coaching staff coming to work in India and this being the first instance from India, one is selected to work with a foreign team.
South Africa is not a team in the top four presently but the strong sports culture in the country, their men’s team dominating Test Cricket and complete support of Cricket South Africa the direction up seems evident.

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