Is enough support given to women's cricket?

Every single day, on various sports channel, there is at least a single cricket match being shown. And every time, it is men’s cricket. We hardly see any channels showing women’s cricket. It isn’t that surprising too, considering that in a country like India, women are always sidelined. The Indian women started playing cricket in the first half of 1970s and now it is 2013, but still there is not much recognition or development that has taken place.

Women don’t get much representation in any sport. And in the case of cricket, it’s no different. However, from kids in slums to Indian captain Mithali Raj, there are high hopes that the attitude towards Indian women’s cricket will change. The problem in India is that major hype is created only for men’s cricket. For instance, it was a very bad move by the BCCI to evict the women’s team from the Wankhede stadium just to accommodate the men’s Ranji trophy final. This shows just how much importance is given to women in cricket.

Even though women have the ability and all the skills to be better than men, they are always held back by the attitude towards women. It is really an insult for the country as it has always been a male dominated society and boys get more educational and job opportunities and support than girls in any field. It is a shame that women try as hard as men to perform well in cricket but their fees differ widely. Women get a meagre 2500 rupees for a domestic one day match and 1250 rupees for Twenty20. There are no changes going to happen any time soon in the attitude towards women in India because it’s still a big thing for a girl to be able to attend school. People still think that women are supposed to stay at home, look after children and do domestic work. There is more support given to other sports than cricket for women. For example, Sania Mirza has gained a lot of importance and support in the field of tennis. We can find only a handful of women who are supported widely in the field of sports. BCCI is currently running women’s cricket because they have no other choice.

Diana Edulji, former Indian captain, said that “it is an insult to women’s cricket to be treated this way. There is no cricket. Domestic cricket comprises only one T20 tournament and one 50-over tournament. There are no longer-format matches and no Test matches. I cannot understand why we cannot play one Test match at least during a bilateral series. If Australia and England can play the Ashes, why can’t India play Tests?”

Even the pension amount they get is hopeless. The pension of rupees 15,000 per month is a pretty good amount but it is given to only those players who have played more than 5 Test matches. What happens to women who have played less than 5 matches?

Media plays a huge role in not broadcasting the matches that take place. Government should take necessary measures to improve the status of women and their representation in sports. To make changes in the system, the mindset about women should actually change. Media can bring a lot differences to Indian women’s cricket. If media can create awareness about how hard the Indian women work to make their country proud, the attitude that people have might change. India does have a very good team and are even capable of beating strong teams like Australia, but they aren’t given the much needed encouragement like the other countries get. Indian women cricket players also don’t get much fame and recognition, so they don’t have much of a fan following as such. Recognition for women’s cricket can also be increased by advertising the upcoming matches properly.

It’s high time that women’s cricket is given its fair share of attention alongside men’s cricket.