Women’s Cricket Gains Momentum
With the recent scandals and dodgy practices being seen in men’s cricket, it may be time for cricket fans to forget that version of the game and check out women’s cricket. The game has the same rules and the game play is very similar. But the question remains, would people come out in large numbers to watch women play cricket? The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) has this same problem: even though it is a very fast paced, exciting game, it does not get the same sort of support as the men’s version of basketball. These days, a small loyal army of fans is emerging, though, and this is exactly what women’s cricket needs: a boost in the number of fans that watch the game.
Women’s cricket has a very long and interesting history. It seems the first recorded women’s match took place in 1775 in England and matches continued to take place regularly after that. Some say that a female bowler by the name of Christine Willes invented overarm bowling to avoid the ball getting tangled up in her skirt. Her brother stole the idea from her and got it introduced into the game. After that, women’s cricket seemed to become less popular until 1887, when the White Heather Club was formed. It proved to be a resounding success with membership booming over the years and many matches being played. However, it was forced to close down when their manager stole all their money and fled.
The modern game came about in 1926 with the introduction of the Women’s Cricket Association. The Association proved to be so popular that by 1938, there were 123 clubs with memberships. The England women’s national team played their first match in 1933 against The Rest. During the next year, the first international Test series took place when the English team went to Australia. In 1973, the first Women’s World Cup was staged and in the final, England beat Australia by 92 runs to win the first World Cup. The captain of the English side, Rachael Heyhoe-Flint led her team to victory and became the first woman cricketing star. With that victory and that tournament, women’s cricket had started to gain a strong following which has only increased over the years.
Women’s cricket did not get the same level of fan following for a long time because people did not take it seriously. They did not think women should be playing the game and they should leave it to the men. But then something interesting happened: they watched a few games and thought it was pretty interesting. As Indian cricketer Anjum Chopra once said in an interview, the men’s game and the women’s game cannot be compared because they are essentially different. The power is not there in the female version, and because of this, they play more beautiful strokes and better looking drives. They also have to become creative with their bowling and try to outwit the batter. But in recent years, the sport has been accepted by the ICC and with that more money has been pumped into it and it has grown. A lot of different countries now have a women’s team and the cricket councils of these countries are supporting them and in turn they are helping the entire sport to grow. In 2009, the women’s World Cup was broadcast live on television for the first time. This just shows how far the sport as come.
With higher viewership will come more fans and with more fans will come more sponsorship, and the more money pouring into the sport, the larger it will grow. Soon it might even become as big as the men’s version of the game. With spot-fixing, bribery, corruption and dodgy bookies all part of the male version, it could be high time to switch to the women’s format.
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