Women’s cricket has come a long way over the years but for some reason, the women's edition of cricket is less popular than men’s cricket. It is interesting to note that in general, whenever a certain sport comes into the limelight, whether it is cricket or football, it is always the men’s version of the game. For some sports, the situation has reversed. Netball being one sport which is conceived to be a totally women dominated sport. It will take a long time and some serious money for women sports in order to reach the same level as men’s sports in the world of today.
A news story prompted this article which stated that, “West Indies' Deandra Dottin wrote herself into cricket's record books by becoming the first women to score a century in a Twenty20 International on Wednesday. The Barbadian made 112 against South Africa in the opening match of the women's World Twenty20 at Warner Park in St Kitts and needed just 38 balls to reach the landmark in an innings featuring nine sixes and five fours”. This was an amazing feat for all forms of cricket and the fact that it did came from women’s bat, will go a long way in helping the sport reach newer heights.
The reasons are many for why the default has always been the men’s version of sport, whenever one talked about any sports event in the world. Firstly, men started playing sports a lot earlier before women. Women’s sports have quite recently come to the forefront because of increased women’s rights. However, because of male increasing male viewership, sponsors have traditionally favoured men’s sports. The same is true for most government, especially those where women do not traditionally play sports. Countries in the Middle East and South East Asia have primitive cultures, where it is difficult for women to leave their homes. The governments of these countries concentrate on the men’s side of the sport. Usually, the men's team is the one who is expected to win medals and laurels for the country in international events. This promotes the image of the country as well, which is why men are favoured over women. If more money and funding is directed towards the women’s side of sports, these countries might see more females representing their countries on the international level.
The catch-22 situation with funding in women’s sports is the fact that sponsors will only pour money into something they see will give them healthy returns and growth. On the other hand, a sport is likely to grow quickly and yield returns, if more money is pumped into it. Therefore, this is the dilemma facing women’s sports in the world of today. It needs the funding and the support in order to grow but that sport will only come in, once it has reached a sufficient level of growth. It is similar to a new business venture. Unless the business has enough sales and has an established customer base, no investor will lend money to support it. However, the business cannot grow until it has money pumped into it by an investor.
What can happen with women’s sports is the same that sometimes happens in business; if one great product comes into the market, people will start buying it through word of mouth alone. As the sales grow, investor confidence grows within that product. In women’s sports, one great athlete can come along like Serena Williams, Mia Hamm or Deandra Dottin and generate so much buzz and excitement amongst the fans that she singlehandedly propels the sport into a sphere where it becomes highly lucrative for sponsors and investors. That helps to get the next generation of female sports stars interested in pursuing that sport from a young age and the next great athlete is produced and the sport grows and keeps on growing until it is at par with the men’s version of the game. As we can see, this has happened in many sports like women’s football in America, women’s tennis and numerous Olympic sports all around the world.
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