The opening day of the third edition of the Hundred was sparked with rather controversial sideline interaction between Chris Hughes and Maitlan Brown.
Former Love Island (English Reality show) participant was selected for conducting a sideline interview of Southern Brave’s Maitlan Brown. During the first innings of the match, Chris Hughes referred to Brown as a ‘batsman’. Ahead of the 2021 Men’s T20 World Cup, ICC had confirmed that the word ‘batsman’ won’t be used furthermore and more gender-neutral terms like ‘batter’ shall be used.
Later on, Brown said that the squad has been spending some time together to improve the bonding in the team. She said “We watched Barbie the other night altogether and it was really good team bonding and the group is gelling really well together. That is the key to success I think in tournaments like this, how well and how quickly you can gel as a group.”
Without any further hesitation, Hughes added “You’re a little Barbie yourself innit with your blue eyes.” This statement from Hughes was not deemed well by the viewers, as they thought this whole interaction was prompting ‘casual sexism’.
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The absolute state of this @BBCSport
"Batsman"
"You're a bit of a Barbie yourself"
So much great young journalistic cricket talent in the UK, and you hire that clown @chrishughes_22, because demographics, innit pic.twitter.com/f7FwAtQjR9
— Always Look On The Bright Cider Life 🍎🏏🍎🏏🍎 (@somersetpodcast) August 1, 2023
Hughes didn’t stop there, he even further commented “She’s blushing now”.
People on Social Media have started criticizing the BBC for assigning the role of the interviewing players to Chris Hughes. Brown, a right-arm medium fast bowler went wicketless in the match conceding 41 runs from 20 balls.
Southern Brave came out as the victorious team from their clash with Trent Rockets in the first game of the season. Smriti Mandhana scored a brilliant quickfire 55 off 36 balls to help Braves post an unassailable target of 158. In return, Rockets managed to score 130 runs from their quota of 100 balls. Mary Taylor was the pick of the bowlers for the Brave’s side as she struck 3 important wickets conceding just 18 runs.