Eyes firmly on India-Pakistan WWT20 clash as India take on Windies in a dead rubber
Both the Indian Men’s and Women’s Cricket teams are in action today. Almost at the same time. Both the games will be telecasted live on TV. Which one will the audience choose?
The Indian women’s cricket team will play their second match today in the 2018 ICC T20 World Cup. They are coming off a terrific victory in their opening match against a more fancied New Zealand team.
Their captain Harmanpreet Kaur produced an innings for the ages, an innings that drew instant comparisons with Kapil Dev’s whirlwind 175 against Zimbabwe in 1983 World Cup. That particular innings by the captain, along with a mature fifty by the young Jemimah Rodrigues has generated a lot of interest among the Indian public.
After the Women in Blue narrowly lost the chance to lift their first ever World Cup in the 50-over ICC world cup 2017, one senses another shot at glory, under the enigmatic Kaur. The hope of a billion people has got a great boost by not just the win against New Zealand, but the dominant nature of the win, in which the Indian eves outplayed their counterparts in all departments.
What has naturally added to more interest in the second match is that it happens to be against the arch-rivals Pakistan. India may have a rather one-sided 8 to 2 win-loss ratio against the Pakistanis. But in their previous encounter in the 2016 T20 World Cup, Pakistan had defeated India in front of a shocked audience in Delhi.
Certainly, it’s time to avenge that loss. All the more reason why this match should draw in a large number of TV audience from the subcontinent, especially from India.
However, the unfortunate truth is that Indian women’s cricket has still not got the kind of attention that it deserves from the cricket-crazy nation. It’s not just the fans, the experts and media too have a tendency to sidestep the event, especially when the Men in blue happen to be in action around the same time.
The Men in Blue will also be in action today in their third T20 match against the West Indies, where they have already taken an unassailable 2-0 lead, rendering this match largely inconsequential.
However, it remains to be seen whether the TRP ratings of this seemingly ‘inconsequential’ match will still manage to draw more TRP ratings than a very important match that their women counterparts will play against Pakistan in the World Cup. Could we be in for a pleasant surprise this time?