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Journalism of Courage
More than a decade ago, when a cricket team was being formed in the organisation I had newly joined, they implored only the male employees to join. Even as they didn’t have the minimum 11 to form a team, they didn’t ask the rest of us. When I raised this, someone made a joke about it, and everyone else laughed. It was odd that they did not even consider it an option to have women in the team.
I had not asked for myself. My experience with the game was only the cricket my brother and I had played as children, pretending to be 11 different people, turning into a pace bowler or an opening batter as the occasion demanded. And in my girls’ only convent school, they didn’t think it necessary to have any sort of sports, let alone cricket.
Perhaps today, it will be a different picture in schools and in workplaces. It has to be, considering the number of women’s teams formed for local tournaments and friendly matches between organisations of a similar nature. Girls are sent off to practice from a very young age and are no longer kept away from sports. Undoubtedly, the change in attitude has a lot to do with the rise in popularity of women’s cricket in India — every match of the national team is followed with interest, and players go on to become someone’s favourite.
Flipping the script
Those old enough to remember the sparsely filled stadiums of women’s matches from two decades ago must be dumbstruck by the cheering crowds and media coverage that women’s cricket enjoys today. Television and streaming channels give prime time coverage, mainstream commentators give their voice, and gender neutral terms have flowed into the cricketing language: ‘batters’ have replaced ‘batsmen’ and the ‘man of the match’ has become the ‘player of the match’.
Among the audience, rows are taken over by young fans. Gender biases seem to vanish as little girls and boys jump with joy over every big moment for the team.
Today, the Women’s World Cup is an entirely different ball game. The ongoing tournament, co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka, has beaten all previous records of viewership for women’s cricket. The International Cricket Council (ICC) and Jio Hotstar (livestreaming the matches) recorded more than six crore viewers in the first 13 matches of the World Cup. This is five times more than the number of viewers for the last World Cup in 2022. The watch time, the ICC stated, has crossed seven billion minutes.
The overall prize pot also grew by a whopping 297 per cent from the previous edition to $13.88 million. According to the ICC, this even surpasses the prize pool for the men’s 2023 event. This fortune reversal, however, did not come easy.
According to Google Trends, this year, the interest in the ICC Women’s World Cup surpassed that of 2022. Players like Australian skipper Alyssa Healey, Indian debutant Amanjot Kaur, and Pakistan’s captain Fatima Sana were searched on Indian Google more than ever before.
A video of Indian all-rounder Jemimah Rodrigues spectacularly diving to catch out Australia’s Beth Mooney was shared widely all over social media. On ICC’s official Facebook page, the clip, captioned “A flying Jemi has been spotted”, garnered over 12 million views. Many recalled another incredible catch by Harleen Deol during the 2021 England tour. Her boundary-hopping stunner was called the “catch of the year” and is replayed even today. Then there are Deepti Sharma’s stares and the team’s on-field dancing celebrations.
The making of women stars
Star players like Mithali Raj (former cricketer and highest scorer of runs), Harmanpreet Kaur (current captain in all formats), and Smriti Mandhana (celebrated batter) have all become regulars in commercials, the way their male counterparts have been for decades. The Women’s Premier League (WPL), with all the excitement of auctions and the T20s, has brought many players into the limelight. Advertisements acknowledged the changing sentiment by having men proudly wear jerseys of female players.
And not just the players — women’s cricket has made several stars. Former cricketer Chandraya Naidu became the first female commentator, Sharda Ugra one of the first female sports journalists, Vrinda Rathi the first woman test umpire, and GS Lakshmi the first to be a match referee.
To appreciate these seemingly small wins, you have to turn back a few years. Indian women played their first test in 1976 and their first One Day International (ODI) in 1978. But it is not even 20 years since the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) recognised women’s cricket. In 2006, the Women’s Cricket Association of India merged with the BCCI, a year after the Indian team reached the World Cup final, finishing as runners-up. The second time that the Indian team reached a World Cup final, they lost by a mere nine runs against England in 2017.
But that was the World Cup in which Harmanpreet was discovered all over again, with her unforgettable century in the semis, and women’s cricket sprang into the spotlight. Sports writer Surprita Das recounts the spellbinding 171 that Harmanpeet scored against Australia in her book Free Hit: The Story of Women’s Cricket in India. She writes: “Cricket, for most Indians, means men’s cricket, because that’s the kind of diet they’ve been brought up on. Kaur’s innings that day had the ability to change this notion completely.”
Yards to go
Despite the welcome rise of women’s cricket, one only needs to look at the current criticism of the Indian team, struggling at the ongoing World Cup, to know that they still have miles to go for equal acceptance as the men’s team.
Despite sound performances, India has lost the last three matches. After a spirited game against Pakistan, Harmanpreet’s team lost thrice in a row to South Africa, Australia and England — the last one by a mere four runs. Their undoing appears to happen in the last few overs, whether they are batting or fielding. In their match against Australia, they had put up a total of 331, but lost by three wickets.
That kind of stress, when victory appears so close at hand, is what appears to trouble the team over and over again. All the extra attention that began to fall on the women in the last decade, while thoroughly encouraging their game, must have also ratcheted up the pressure.
The reactions have been appalling. It’s as if the suppressed misogynists had been waiting to pounce on them the moment they slipped. While analyses and criticism are expected, and in fact needed for growth, when they turn towards the gender of the players, the problem that was finally beginning to fade once again raises its head. Comments pouring out on social media, attacking the players, have increasingly turned sexist. Memes put Harmanpreet in the kitchen, telling her that that’s her place. Posts ridiculed the women for receiving equal payment as men — a move made by the BCCI in 2022.
Interestingly, on the same day that the women lost to England by four runs, the men’s team, in a squad that included old favourites like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, had put on a poor show against Australia. But the criticism that marked their innings remained professional, touching only on their on-field performance, with no directions to take up household work or gardening.
Cricket fans have been known to be unkind, hugely impatient when their favourite players show a lack of form. Even a legend like Sachin Tendulkar — and now Kohli — who have been adulated beyond measure, have been implored to resign in their last few years by frustrated fans. But even in the criticism of male cricketers, the women in their lives are dragged in, whether it’s Bollywood star Anushka Sharma (Kohli’s wife) or actress Natasa Stankovic (Hardik Pandya’s ex-wife).
Amid all the nastiness, however, sane voices shine, offering stark reminders of the greatness of the game and the pettiness of misogyny. Hopefully, it will propel the fans to shake away the negativity and support India as the Women in Blue once again go on the field to face New Zealand today.
