Lockdown has enforced a pause on the majority of outdoor sporting activities. The key to revival is in the hands of administrative stakeholders but they seem more engaged in revenues and men’s cricket as of now. In a recent media report, popular cricket commentators, Ian Bishop along with his colleague and ex-cricketer Lisa Sthalekar has stressed the need to resume women’s cricket under the supervision of a new normal.
It was discussed widely that women have gathered an unprecedented amount of momentum in recent times and experts along with players had emphasized on the need to build upon the same. Ian Bishop and Lisa have reciprocated the same. Bishop has been covering the tour of Windies on the English soil and his comments came during the launch of Beyond the Boundary, a Netflix documentary on T20 World Cup 2020.
He said “It should give cricket boards and the ICC greater insight into how to carry this game out. Now the women’s game and the administrators can look at this without endangering anyone’s lives and say: we can play cricket safely”.
He further added that “So now it’s time to get on the bicycle and start putting things in place. We must look to drive it forward now. Even if it’s for bilateral tours because we know that now we can do it safely”.
Lisa, on the other hand, was pleased with the boards for conducting Women’s T20 Challenge and WBBL. She seemed happy with the efforts of Cricket Australia and the Board for Control of Cricket in India but the clash with the two tournaments was concern in her eyes. She considered the upcoming clashes in November not ideal but at present, she emphasized, the need to look at positives.
She said that “It’s not necessarily going to be the best product since you are definitely going to miss the Australian players, and potentially some international players but from an Indian domestic players’ perspective, it’s going to give a chance to those girls to play more cricket and opening up doors to a few more of those on the fringes and give them a chance”.
She added that “That will hopefully allow BCCI to see that there’s enough depth and hopefully next year we’ll get a full-fledged women’s IPL and everyone can join in at a proper time in April and May”.
The ball is in the courts of boards and big managers to chalk a plan which suits all the stakeholders having an interest in women’s cricket.
Source: ESPN Cricinfo
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