Women’s cricket arrived in 2017, 2018 showed it belongs

Snehal Pradhan

31 Dec 2018 00:00 IST

New Update

Lisa Sthalekar: All hail the Caribbean spirit for a successful World T20 — Australia are the defending champions. © ICC

The story of how the first ever Women’s World Cup came two years before the men’s world cup is quasi-famous. But how many people can tell you when the second Women’s World Cup was, or how it languished for a while as an unwanted child, before finally finding a ramshackle home in India?

We remember the Deepika Kumaris, Mary Koms, the Anjali Bhagwats. But how many of us can remember another female name from these sports? How many can talk about the Sarita Devis and the Rahi Sarnobats, or the systemic hurdles that mean there are only a few of those, not an army following the pioneer?

Which is exactly how women’s cricket stood out in 2018. After a seminal 2017 Women’s World Cup in England, at the time the most broadcast and followed women’s tournament ever, 2018 has defied decades of neglect, a misogynistic world, even physics. 2018 has topped it.

With some help from up above.

Taking a cue from the Women’s Big Bash League, the ICC changed the playing conditions of women’s cricket in October 2017, allowing no more than four fielders outside the circle after the first six overs in T20Is. With the whips cracked, par scores jumped through high hoops. Eight of the 10 top totals in T20Is have been scored this year, with four of those eight breaching 200. The year has seen four centuries, whereas previous to the rule changes there had been three since 2005. Some will call it a masterstroke, and others (read, bowlers) artificial-inflation. Either way, the move has fast-tracked the game, and it is here to stay.

Around the world, people voted for the sport with their feet and their wallets. Average match attendances for the 2018 Women’s T20 World Cup left the 2017 Women’s World Cup looking like a lukewarm success. England hosted a T20I tri-series, played around weekends and hosted at smaller stadiums, and the healthy crowds got to see a record score of 250 from the home team. Vadodara followed a similar strategy, and more than 7,000 turned up on a Sunday to watch an inconsequential ODI between Australia and India (with the carrot of free entry), with series attendances estimated to have crossed 15,000.

And yet the same two tours highlighted how the rising quality of cricket also needs smart administration and the right setting; The T20I triangular series that India hosted, following the ODIs in Vadodara, was played in Mumbai, in the middle of the day, with no publicity. Only a few hundred turned up. And few people talk about the fact that three international teams were asked to play two T20s in a day in England to entice people to the grounds. Imagine male cricketers doing that.

Television told a similar story. Two thirds of the game’s one billion fans want to see more women’s cricket, according to the ICC’s own survey. Perfect timing, as 2018 would see the first ever standalone Women’s T20 World Cup, in which every game was televised, setting new bare-minimums for further global tournaments. More commendable is the fact that the decision to give the women their own tournament came in 2014, one of the many right moves the ICC has made for women’s cricket.

But not all boards share the ICC’s vision or confidence, and in some cases, budget: Cricket South Africa did not televise or livestream the ODI leg of India’s tour in January, correcting the misjudgement after an uproar from the Indian media. Sri Lanka cricket were less contrite, choosing not to livestream an entire T20I home series against India, rather than allow an interested third party stream a low-budget production.

The spotlight also casts shadows, and the distance between the few haves and rest of the have-nots in the game was more visible this year. England and Australia made the final of the 2018 T20 World Cup, the only two countries with professional T20 domestic leagues, benefitting from a decade long head start. There were glimmers of a more balanced future: Bangladesh’s Jahanara Alam became one of the faces of the tournament, as much for her unlikely catching as for her sincere rendition of her life story. And Ireland’s Laura Delany captured the essence of the amateur game as she broke into tears after failing to secure automatic qualification for the next T20 World Cup.

This makes two developments this year arguably more significant than most others: Bangladesh won their first ever Asia Cup, beating India twice in June, and captured, however briefly, the attention of their board, with which came promises of increased investment. And a few Irish players will earn part-time professional contracts in 2019, their association finally in a position to take their team towards professionalism. This came on the back of South Africa and India significantly revamping the payment structures of their teams. The gap may be wide, but the foundations of a bridge are being laid.

Smriti Mandhana named ICC Cricketer of the Year

Indian coin fuels change in cricket, so Smriti Mandhana becoming the first Indian in 11 years to win the ICC’s Cricketer of the Year award was significant, especially coming on the back of her Arjuna award at home and Player of the Series award in the Kia Super League. Poonam Yadav’s 35 T20I wickets in the year were five more than her nearest competitor, and she earned spots in the ICC ODI and T20I Teams of the Year. Less desirable was how the sport left the back pages when the spat between Mithali Raj and former coach Ramesh Powar was ogled at by the world. And so women’s cricket has begun testing that old advertiser’s adage, that there is such a thing as bad publicity.

But the biggest change is simmering below the surface of the international scene. In the middle of the IPL, about 25 women in hastily arranged kits, ensconced in an empty stadium, played out what could be called the most important exhibition match in the sport’s history. Once again, a standard has been set, and 2019 holds the potential for the BCCI to stretch into the beginning of the tournament the world needs, a women’s IPL.

This demands a bold step from the BCCI. They would do well to take a leaf out of the Australian playbook: As the year wound down, the Big Bash pushed the envelope again by turning a double header on its head, literally. On Boxing Day, Perth’s shiny new stadium played host to a Big Bash match in the late afternoon, and a Women’s Big Bash game half an hour later. By giving the women primetime 7:45 pm slot, they tried to break the record for attendance for a Women’s Big Bash game. 40,646 people came through the gates, and around 19,000 stayed till the end, according to one commentator.

Alyssa Healy named ICC T20I Cricketer of the Year

The symbolism of that move is powerful, an ambitious first step towards true gender parity. And, like the standalone T20 World Cup, a statement of how captivating women’s cricket becomes with the right investment; all it needs is the spotlight. Catch up, world, catch up, India. 2017 may have been the year women’s cricket arrived in the global consciousness. But 2018 is the year the sport has shown it belongs.

India Mithali Raj Smriti Mandhana Ellyse Perry BCCI Snehal Pradhan