Posted by It’s a rarity to come across a woman in the traditionally male-dominated fields of cricket and coaching. But, as you all know, gender equality must happen in all spheres of life.
The idea that cricketers need to be male is outdated, and the lack of female representation at the highest level is simply unacceptable. And that is why The rise of women test cricket is happening more and more by all the boards of the crickets. They are now aiming to bring women cricket to new heights by promoting them into the world.
Nowadays, you can see them more and more leagues and tournaments are organized in the women cricket world, which earlier was ignored. But now it is not like that women too in large number are showing interest in playing test match and cricket.
History Of Women’ Test Cricket
The women test cricket is a form of cricket that is played over a four-innings, five days time span. Test matches, which occur across the globe between teams representing international cricket federations, are the longest form of cricket matches.
The first women’s test match was played in England in 1895 when England beat Australia by seven wickets. A hundred years later, the West Indies women cricket team also defeated Australia. However, the creation of Women’s cricket did not start until the 1970s.
The West Indies Cricket Board appointed Katharine Gaffney as a consultant, and she came up with the plan to raise funds for a women’s team, which was then implemented by the International Cricket Council (ICC). After 20 years, women started playing Test matches, and it took another ten years before they were considered an official Test side. As men and women have moved away from their traditional roles, playing the sport has become popular.
Within the last few decades, more and more women are playing cricket at an amateur level, but professional pathways remain elusive.
Many argue that female cricketers will be afforded professional opportunities once they are given equal opportunity at home. In response to this argument, many believe that a rise in female participation in cricket can only come through increased media coverage and more significant investment from sponsorships by businesses. This is an optimistic view that may yet bear fruit in the future.
Are women cricketers paid less than men?
The average salary for a player in the Indian top league is much higher than the women in their league. This happens because of a lack of interest in cricket boards in women’s cricket because women cricket is not considered to generate significantly fewer profits than the men’s professional league.
There have been many instances where people and coaches demanded an increase in salary for women cricket players. But the cricket boards of all cricket playing nations ignored their demand. This shows the negligence towards the salary of the women cricketer.
Although the women have been playing for a more extended period, they earn an estimated quarter of what the men take home from international matches. Women are paid less by their respective boards, and it is an issue that should be solved if they want to encourage more girls to cricket as a career.
Increasing Women Participation In Test Cricket
There have been many efforts to promote and increase women participation in cricket in the whole world. It is right, too, as there is a need to uplift women cricket for its growth. There are several steps or methods in which you can increase women participation in the test and another format of cricket.
- The first step is to get more women involved in cricket from the junior level, and the second step is to find out how you can encourage more women into coaching roles at all levels of the game. With these two measures in place, the change will start to show its results in less time.
- The obvious answer would seem to be encouraging greater numbers of women into playing cricket at junior levels through better net facilities and giving girls access to their grade cricket teams. This is essential if Cricket boards want girls to stick with the sport throughout their teenage years rather than dropping off when they are no longer good enough to play with boys.
- The second way you can get more women into the sport is to promote them into coaching positions quicker. The cricket boards or countries can offer scholarships to female coaches and increase their involvement in state and national squads. But they could go even further by actively seeking out qualified female coaches for every squad across all formats and investing in developing these women.
With increased participation for men and women throughout grassroots cricket, you will see better role models for children who want to follow a career in cricket or any sport for that matter and an increase of well-rounded individuals who are comfortable with people of different genders.