Shikha Pandey stands against rule-changes in women's cricket
Indian pacer Shikha Pandey took to Twitter to stand against the change in rules that ICC has suggested in order to make the women's game more appealing to the audience. These rule changes include reducing the length of the pitch to 20 yards and reducing the size and weight of the ball. Shikha Pandey believed that many of these rules changes were not needed.
"I have been reading/ hearing a lot about the changes being suggested to help grow women's cricket/ make it a more attractive product. I personally feel most of the suggestions to be superfluous," Shikha Pandey tweeted.
A 100m female sprinter doesn't run 80m to clock the same timing as her male counterpart: Shikha Pandey
Shikha Pandey also compared reducing the size of the pitch to the analogy of a woman athlete running 80 metres instead of 100 metres just to clock the same time as her fellow male athlete.
"An Olympic 100m female sprinter doesn't run 80m to win First place medal and clock the same timing as her male counterpart. So the whole 'decreasing the length of the pitch' for whatever reasons seems dubious. Also, it almost definitely takes the double headers out of question," she wrote.
Shikha Pandey was also againt bringing the boundaries in and reducing the size of the ball as she believed that women had the ability to clear the fence and their hitting would only get better with time.
"Please don't bring the boundaries in! We have surprised you with our power-hitting in recent times, so remember, this is only the beginning; we will get better. Please have patience. We are skilled players, who are evolving," wrote Shikha.
Shikha Pandey signed off by underlining the importance of marketing the game properly and believed that backing the women's game was more important than bringing changes to the rules in order to make it grab eyeballs from all over the world.
"Growth can also be achieved by marketing the sport well. We don't have to tinker with rules or the very fabric of the game to attract an audience," she wrote.