Manoj Madhavan -
Tuesday, May 27, 2008 4:36 PM
This weekend must have been enthralling for sports enthusiasts. Ten Sports showed West Indies Vs Australia at Old Trafford, Star Cricket had England Vs New Zealand at Jamaica, Star Sports had French Open, ESPN Motor Car Racing and, of course, IPL on Set Max.
Surfing through the channels, I happened to stop at Neo Cricket and was hooked to a bizarre discussion: Should there be a Women’s IPL?
The anchor was mimicking Shatrughan Sinha, Amitabh Bachan, Ajit, and other Bollywood biggies, taking callers in between. On the panel was Diana Eduljee, former skipper of the Indian women’s cricket team. Mithali Raj, the current captain, was on phone line.
I was a bit surprised to find that people were actually calling on the show, but on careful observation I realized that most of the callers were former women cricketers.
Are there any viewers in India for women’s cricket? Wish the topic was why women’s cricket fails to attract viewers rather than a women’s IPL.
Some questions for those who disagree with me:
Name five current Indian women cricketers?
Or, five women who had captained Indian women’s cricket team?
Or, name any two foreign women cricketers?
And by the way this is after Indian women’s cricket having won four consecutive Asian titles.
The viewership of our national game hockey went down largely because of the team’s consistent poor performance. We watch tennis despite Sania Mirza’s not too great performances, sports enthusiasts eagerly watch F1 and EPL even though there’s no Indian participation. But then why despite good show, Indian women cricketers have failed to draw viewers?
Now, I am saying this at the risk of being branded an MCP, but if you see objectively, Indian women cricketers possess, to put it mildly, an average cricketing talent. I say this from personal experience. In 1990s, I used to do regular net practice on the Gargi College grounds. On several ocassions we practiced with members of the Indian women's cricket team. To an average local cricketer like me, their game appeared nothing but ordinary.
I am not trying to get into the silly debate that men have more physical strength than women, etc, etc. What I have just said about the women cricketers, I can't say the same thing for any other Indian sportswoman. Say for example, any local tennis player would find it difficult to match Sania Mirza or Ankita Bhambri's game. No average male shooter could say that he can shoot better than Anjali Bhagwat.