The final match of the women's T20 world cup between India and Australia is shaping up to be a sporting event of epic scale. Pop artist Katy Perry is all set to perform there and 75,000 tickets have already been sold, which means Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), where the event will take place on Sunday, will be filled with enthusiastic fans. Bharat Army, the globetrotting fan group of Indian men's cricket team are already there to cheer for our desi batswomen.
Meanwhile, Australian fast bowler, Mitchell Starc, has dropped out of the final of one-day international cricket against South Africa to watch his wife, the Aussie cricketer, Alyssa Healy, take on the Indian team.
It is needless to say that Sunday’s final match is a definitive moment not just in the history of cricket, but also in women's sports. However, for women of the Indian cricket team, this moment also comes laden with the responsibility to prove their worth to the viewers back home.
"When we played in 2017, the audience wasn't expecting anything from us. But this year the public is obviously hoping that the women's team will bring the trophy home," points out senior cricketer, Punam Raut. Raut recalls that despite their tragic defeat in the hands of England in 2017, they not only received a hero's welcome back home but also saw a spike in sponsorship and facilities. The number of tournaments shot up too, she remembers.
"Before 2017, all I ever heard were complains about women playing cricket — 'why are they playing? can they even play?’ People would often ask. But, things changed overnight after the World Cup. Parents of young girls, who are interested in cricket, now come to me for career advice. Ten-year-olds and 12-year-olds show up for try-outs at my academy and I feel so proud to see them. If playing a final match at a World Cup can garner such a response, I wonder what winning it might do for women's cricket in India," she asks.
If India wins today, we will know the answer to Raut's question. However, trophy or no trophy, with this world cup it is clear that the Indian women's cricket now has the scope of exponential growth and if BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India ) plays its cards right, no one can stop it from becoming as mainstream as men's cricket.
Second Among Equals
On the field, the Indian women's team is equal in all aspects to their Aussie counterparts. Off the field, however, their pay gap is conspicuous. While the women cricketers of the Australian team are getting paid as much as their male players, in India, the pay gap between men and women cricketers is glaring.
A world cup win can fix this to a certain extent, says Raut. "The pay scale has definitely shot up for the women in recent years. Chances are if the girls bring home the trophy, the BCCI will also increase the match fees, which will obviously make them financially secure," she adds.
The irony of the situation, however, is that it is the women cricketers themselves who have often defended their low pay scale, saying they are happy with what they are making because it is increasing in accordance with the kind of revenue the sport is bringing in. Less revenue garnered by women's cricket is often cited as a cause of lower pay. But, the same is true for countries like Australia, where the women cricketers are being offered equal pay, irrespective of the revenue.
BCCI, however, has created many sports-related jobs for women players in the past decade. "After BCCI took women's cricket under its umbrella, the money in domestic cricket has increased a lot. It is heartening to know that families can run on the money girls make from these games. When I used to play back in 1995, the remuneration was as low as Rs 1,000 for a one-day match and Rs 2,000 for test matches," recalls ex-cricketer, coach and selector, Purnima Rau.
"Many more girls are getting the opportunity to play these days. Ex-cricketers are being employed as coaches, video analysers, referees, trainers or selectors and those are all steps in the positive direction," Rau adds.
However, the discrimination between men and women cricketers isn't just restricted to pay. "There aren't enough matches for many women players. For instance, a senior player from Saurashtra gets to play only about eight games in a calendar year. A scope of eight to nine matches in 365 days is indeed very less according to me," says Rau.
The Girl Gang
While more Indian women like Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, and pace bowler Shikha Pandey are taking international stadiums by storm, the sight of young girls playing gully cricket still isn't common in India and efforts to include young female talents definitely needs a boost. While BCCI scouts for young boys in rural areas by setting up camps, such efforts to find young girl cricketers are uncommon.
One endeavour that can prove to be hugely beneficial for women's cricket, but has yet not been undertaken is the Under 16 tournaments. "Pre BCCI, Under 16 groups is where we all started our games. We were called sub juniors. Under 16 was the pulse of quality cricket in yesteryears. Nowadays, except southern India, where under 16 tournaments is done mutually by six states, we do not have any under 16 tournaments that are organised by BCCI. But, if BCCI begins to organise such tournaments, it would attract a big talent pool from schools, colleges and districts levels and revolutionize the game," adds Rau.
BCCI has already lost a golden opportunity as far as women's IPL is concerned. They were pioneers of IPL, it began in India, yet they were hesitant about starting women's IPL matches, simply because they felt that women cricketers didn't have the required numbers. However, things are changing now. BCCI reportedly has a plan to increase the number of teams and maybe start a franchise-based women's IPL. This is likely to draw many new young women players to the sport.
Another good thing that has happened with the World Cup is that it has revealed talented international cricketers from Thailand, Bangladesh, etc. who can now participate in the women's IPL matches.
A legacy of 22 yards
As Harmanpreet Kaur and her team stand today at the MCG, they represent generations of Indian women cricketers who fought to keep the sports alive. Shantha Rangaswamy, Arjun awardee and the first captain of Indian women's cricket team recalls the initial days when they had to fight against many odds to play the sport. The fields were uneven, they travelled unreserved or in second class train compartments, and slept on the floors of dormitories for days. But, that's not the memory she wants to dwell on.
"Back in the 1970s, the Indian women's cricket team was very popular," she recalls with fondness. "We used to get crowds of 30,000 to 40,000 and more, for test matches. In print media too, we were making headlines," she adds.
"If we had flopped, then women's cricket would never have taken off. It would have faded away like so many other women's sports did over the years. Our performances at the international level were always good and consistent and that is what has helped the game stay afloat. We added to the longevity of this game and that's our single biggest contribution," Rangaswamy says.
Although the watershed moment for Indian women's cricket came in 2017, when India played England in the world cup final and lost only by 9 runs, the Indian cricket team and Women's Cricket Association India (WCAI) had taken India to many world cup competitions in the past. In fact, in 1978, when WCAI was only five years old, India hosted it's first women's world cup in India. The team also participated in the world cup of 1982.
Rangaswamy recalls that women's cricket hit a period of lull in the early 90s and things only started picking up after India played 1997 world cup. "I would say that the zenith of women's cricket was from 2001 when Shubhangi Kulkarni took over as secretary of WCAI. She recognised the needs of the players and delivered them. Before BCCI even came into the picture, India was the runner-up in 2005 World Cup, under her secretaryship," adds Rangaswamy.
In search of the '83 moment?
While some may claim that the 2017 women's cricket world cup was equivalent to the 1983 win of Indian cricket team (men) against West Indies in terms of the response it garnered, Shubhangi Kulkarni believes that the '83 moment for women's cricket is yet to arrive. In fact, the Indian women's team may be at its precipice as they take the field for the T20 world cup final today.
Kulkarni, who apart from being the ex-secretary of WCAI, has also been an ex-cricketer, a former captain and Arjun Award winner told News18, "Men's cricket was always popular, but in 1983 when the men won the world cup, it took cricket to another level. Many sponsors came forward and a lot of things started happening in men's cricket" recalls Kulkarni. "the same can happen for women's cricket if the team wins the world cup this year...If you see any game when you have a winner, you have people watching the game. Be it Saina Nehwal in Badminton, or Sania Mirza in tennis, when they started to win, people started watching these sports," she adds.
Kulkarni knows how important it is for the audiences to be invested in the sport for it to thrive. "The 2005 world cup team was one of the best teams we ever had. But, the final match in which India played was hardly covered by the broadcast media," she recalls.
Things may have changed considerably after the 2017 world cup, but women's cricket is yet to get the attention it deserves from the Indian audiences.
"Telecast of women's cricket is very important for its following to increase and its sponsorship to increase," says Suprita Das, author of the book Free Hit: The Story of Women's Cricket in India.
"Even now, after the 2017 world cup and Doordarshan broadcasting women's cricket matches and Hotstar live streaming them, the broadcasters still don't have enough highlight packages or special shows on women's cricket," she adds. Das points out that instead of broadcasting old matches of men's cricket, the initiative should be taken to cover more women's cricket, including domestic matches.
The viewership of women's cricket may be on the rise in our country, but it is yet to draw women viewers in large numbers. "We have all grown up watching a healthy diet of men's cricket. In the 90s' we grew up watching Sachin Tendulkar, we didn't have a Mithali Raj or a Jhulan Goswami because women's cricket was hardly televised. So young girls did not have women cricketers as role models. But, things are definitely changing now," she adds.
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