Chandresh Narayanan
So the depth in India’s women’s cricket is all set to increase because the franchises will be keen to expand the footprint of the sport all over the country. Even players from abroad are set to gain from this exposure. In short, women’s cricket is set to get a huge facelift worldwide, but without any support from the world governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), which is once again a bystander in yet another revolution in the sport.
Within India, the state associations which were reluctant to embrace the women’s game will also be watching from the sidelines as the revolution will hit them hard and they can only watch without any inputs of their own.
For the women’s cricketer in India this is a huge win after years of being side-lined and made to feel like second class citizens in a country where the sport was a religion. Just imagine a couple of years ago at the height of the pandemic, they did not have a specific calendar, their money from appearing in the T20 World Cup was not paid to them and they stared at an uncertain future.
But a media campaign ensured that everything fell into place one by one and now they even have matching salaries with their male counterparts. Quite a change from just over a decade ago when some administrators tried to dismiss the women’s game as not that important.
In India things do change, but they change slowly as the women will testify.