WOM EN'S - Women's CricZone

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EN’S

WWW.WOMENSCRICZONE.COMISSUE 5 | 2021

KARUNYA KESHAV ON THE RAPID RISE OF INDIA’S LATEST TEEN SENSATION SHAFALI

WHERE’D YOU GO?ESTELLE VASUDEVAN ON SRI LANKA’S DISAPPEARING ACT

AN EQUAL VOICERAF NICHOLSON ON

THE IMPORTANCE OF PLAYERS’ ASSOCIATIONS

www.womenscriczone.com 5

The last six months have probably been the strangest, most rewarding period for our company. It started with an excellent India versus

South Africa series, that was followed by another lockdown which confined us to our homes (again!), another India series that included their first Test match in seven years, and finally saw the introduction of cricket’s newest format, The Hundred, for which we have had to wait an entire year.

During this period, we, at Women’s CricZone, also attempted to expand our wings, and provide greater coverage to the more ignored parts of the game. For starters, in order to improve our coverage of the associate nations, we teamed up with Associate Women in Cricket – an organisation consisting of four inspiring women who play for the likes of Hong Kong, Singapore and the UAE and are keen on building awareness around the associate nations. Since June this year, the quartet of Yasmin Daswani, Priyanjali Jain, Nimisha Agrawal and Ruchitha Venkatesh have helped us tell more stories about the development of cricket and the tales of those involved in the game in associate countries.

Second, in our bid to grow the game and make it more visible, we have now partnered with Cricket Namibia, Rwanda Cricket Association and Cricket Argentina to stream their games around the world. Cricket is a global game, and we believe that everyone should be able to watch and have access to it. After all, you can’t be what you can’t see. It is important that these women have the opportunity

to showcase their talents on a visible stage. All matches will be available to watch on Women’s CricZone’s YouTube and Facebook channels.

Additionally, we partnered with some amazing companies in Fast & Up, a leading sports nutrition company, and PlayerzPot, a top Fantasy platform, to create some wonderful content.

In equally exciting news, both Melanie Jones and Prakash Wakankar have joined our advisory board. Ms. Jones is an ex-player, current media broadcaster, Director of Cricket Australia and a member of the ICC women’s committee, plus one of the best people to work with. Mr Wakankar, on the other hand, comes with an experience of the corporate world and cricket. Having juggled both hats, he certainly understands the business better than most.

Coming to the young woman on the cover… I don’t think there was there a better option in the last six months. Is she someone who is changing the landscape of the women’s game? Is she India’s go-to player now? Does she hit the ball the hardest in the women’s game? The answer to all these questions is yes, and hence, it was no-brainer that 17-year-old Shafali Verma made the cover.

Special thanks to Shafali, to all the writers and people who feature in this issue. Also, to the ICC, BCCI and all the cricket boards, thank you for your continued support. To my team led by Ananya Upendran, all the cricketers, mentors and sponsors, this is all because of you. Your support to Women’s CricZone and the women’s game is what keeps us going. [email protected]

@YvLahoti

Yash Lahoti

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

4-8kg 7-12kg 9-14kg 12-17kg

Email : [email protected]


[email protected]_upendran11

Ananya Upendran

ADAPTABILITY

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

In July 2019, Meg Lanning played one of the greatest T20I innings ever – an unbeaten 133 that helped Australia storm England’s ‘Fortress Chelmsford’ and seal the Ashes.

It was a masterful knock – the perfect combination of power, placement, finesse and batting smarts. With the series there for the taking, Lanning raised her game to astronomical heights, quickly summing up the situation and unleashing her very best. As she pummelled England’s bowlers around the ground, it was hard not to be struck by her adaptability.

In life, as much as sport, adaptability is key. The ability to think on your feet, quickly readjust your plans and work towards a modified goal is easy to disregard, but often it is the most important skill one can possess. At the recent Tokyo Olympics we watched athletes across a wide range of sports have to tweak their plans on the go. From golfer Aditi Ashok, gymnast Sunisa Lee, to badminton star PV Sindhu, it was the ability to quickly adapt that stood out.

Think cricket, and how players who occupy the top spots are often the most adaptable. There is so much focus on one’s ability to adjust to different conditions – both weather and pitch. The ability to alter one’s gameplan to suit the match situation – whether to go hammer and tongs, hold down the fort, or find a more balanced approach. And also, the ability to tweak, however slightly, one’s technique and tactics based on what the opponents are throwing at you. There are so many variables to consider, so many calculations to make. It all happens in the space of a few minutes,

sometimes even seconds. In the best players, that adaptability is almost instinctive.

Only nine months before that knock at Chelmsford, Lanning had dropped anchor to score a 39-ball 31 in the semi-final of the 2018 Women’s T20 World Cup against defending champions West Indies in Antigua. On a slow surface that suited spin, she responsibly held one end up as her teammates swung for the fences. It was the type of knock that gave Australia a sense of stability on what was a tough pitch – something West Indies could have learnt from. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t adapt quickly enough and went crashing out of the tournament.

In the last year and a half, we’ve all needed to adapt our own ways of working and living, or just getting by, to suit prevailing conditions. Talking into screens, largely staying indoors, and minimizing human contact have become second nature to us now. We adapt to survive, and along the way, we learn to thrive.

At Women’s CricZone, we’ve recently had to jump a few hurdles of our own. As we tried to put this magazine together, we came up against various stumbling blocks, and had to continually re-adjust our plans knowing full well that the end date wouldn’t budge. But after a few weeks of scrambling, we’ve finally managed to cross the finish line. We may have knocked down a couple of those hurdles along the way – and probably won’t finish on the podium – but in the end, we found a way. And like every good team, we did it with the contributions of many – writers, designers, artists and editors. As you can see, it came together in the end!

8 www.womenscriczone.com

18

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

05PUBLISHER’S NOTE- Yash Lahoti

07FROM THE EDITOR'S DESKADAPTABILITY- Ananya Upendran

THE OPENER

10FROM TEENAGE PRODIGY TO TRUE PROFESSIONAL: THE KATHRYN BRYCE STORY - Hannah Thompson

18(THE) HUNDRED WAYS TO GROW THE GAME- Jeremy Blackmore

FROM THE ARCHIVES

24BEST OF WOMEN’S CRICZONE WEBSITE

COVER STORY

26SHAFALI’S SOPHOMORE SUMMER- Karunya Keshav

NUMBERS GAME

36TESTING TIMES: RED BALL TRENDS OVER THE YEARS- John Leather

BEYOND THE BOUNDARY

46ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS, WE STAND- Ananya Upendran

56SRI LANKA’S DISAPPEARING ACT - Estelle Vasudevan

IN THE FRAME

62PHOTO SECTION

26

®

WOMEN’S CRICZONE MAGAZINE

email: [email protected]: www.womenscriczone.com

PUBLISHERYash Lahoti

EDITORIAL

MANAGING EDITORAnanya Upendran

ART DIRECTORJitendra Chillal

CONTRIBUTORS

Jeremy BlackmoreKarunya Keshav

John LeatherAhsan Iftikhar Nagi

Raf NicholsonS Sudarshanan

Hannah ThompsonEstelle Vasudevan

ART & GRAPHICSSachin Pandit Ashwini Adole

Don MilesAyan Mukherjee

Mohan Nag

ADVISORY BOARD

CONSULTING EDITORSunandan Lele

LEGAL ADVISORAdv. Dr. Chinmay S. Bhosale

ADVISORSVinit Deo

Melanie JonesAbhishek KulkarniKailash Mundada

Kamal RungtaPrakash Wakankar

CORPORATE COUNSELLegaLogic Consulting

ADVERTISING AND PROMOTIONS

ADVERTISING MANAGERKaran Kulkarni | [email protected]

Published by

BREAKING BOUNDARIES PVT LTD

Plot No. 6, Yashashree Colony, Near Chintamani Prestige, Cummins College Road, Karve Nagar,

Pune, Maharashtra - 411052, India.


88

36OPINION

68ADVOCATING FOR AN EQUAL VOICE: THE IMPORTANCE OF PLAYERS’ ASSOCIATIONS- Raf Nicholson

PERSPECTIVE

78BEHIND THE STUMPS: TRACKING THE WICKET-KEEPING TRANSFORMATION - S Sudarshanan

SPECIAL

86LEADING LADIES

LOOKING AHEAD

88A NEW DAWN FOR WOMEN’S CRICKET IN PAKISTAN- Ahsan Iftikhar Nagi

ROUND-UP

96THE WOMEN TO WATCH- Ananya Upendran

100AT A GLANCE: SERIES SUMMARIES

102TOP PERFORMERS: NUMBERS WRAP

SUPER OVER

104FACE TIME

105GUESS WHO?

106SEARCHING FOR SOMEONE?


ICC Associate Player of the Decade Kathryn Bryce has achieved so much in her humble 23 years on this planet. As a person

she is intelligent, kind, and someone everyone gets along with. Yet, on the pitch, she’s a venomous bowler, unphased of taking the big wicket in high-pressure moments and quietly goes about her work in the deadliest of fashions.

A late mover of the ball, deceptive with her swing,

Bryce’s natural ability is paired with years of dedication and support to her craft. What makes her so good is her consistency with her inswing, her ability to change up her pace, and her growing list of variations combined with the intellect of when to deploy them.

“I think the movement I get in the air is really valuable, and for me, it’s all about being as consistent as possible,” Bryce tells Women’s CricZone. “After the first year in the [Women’s

Cricket] Super League that (consistency) really shot up. Having to play against the best players in the world, you just have to be on it more. I think that really pushed my game on. I just want to keep learning new things and learn from different people.”

Although of late her bowling has made the headlines, Bryce’s all-round abilities mean she adds great flexibility to any side she plays for.

“For me my batting is the

• HANNAH THOMPSON

THE OPENER

One of the world’s leading allrounders, and recently crowned ICC Associate Player of the Decade, Scotland skipper Kathryn Bryce hopes her success as a professional cricketer will inspire more women and girls in her country to take up the sport.

FROM TEENAGE PRODIGY TO TRUE PROFESSIONAL: THE KATHRYN BRYCE STORY


balance between being fearless and being responsible. I try to stay up with the game and ahead of it rather than catching up.”

Bryce started off playing boys’ and men’s cricket before moving across the border to access England’s national performance centre based in Loughborough where she has recently completed a B.Sc. in Sports Science.

Mature beyond her years, Bryce has seen dramatic change in the landscape of the women’s game both in Scotland and in neighbouring England where she now plies her trade as a full-time professional.

***Born in Edinburgh, Bryce

acknowledges her privilege of growing up with supportive parents and having a close relationship to wicketkeeping-batter sister, Sarah, who is also a professional cricketer for

Lightning. Having her sister close in age has allowed a bit of friendly competition that started in their back garden and has progressed to being in opposing sides during The Hundred. Their relationship is unbreakable and a real driver for Kathryn to keep pushing the boundaries of what she can achieve. Paving the way for other Scottish girls, Kathryn, as captain, and Sarah, as vice-captain, are enjoying every second of being the much-needed role models in a professional era that simply was unheard of when they were growing up.

“We both push each other and probably get pretty competitive. It’s just [nice] having someone who will go out in the garden with you whether that’s to play cricket or go kick a ball around, just having someone who is always there to push you on is huge.

But recently, it’s not just been about that, but seeing Sarah also impress and really take that next step in her career,” says the older Bryce.

The siblings’ entry into cricket was encouraged by their parents who still travel around following both sisters wherever and whenever they can. But looking back at her formative years, Bryce reflects on the commitment her father had to take the pair to camps between the ages of 8 and 12.

“Dad actually brought us down to a few camps at Lord’s quite early on, so we had a few weekend trips down (to England) when we were younger,” Bryce explains. “Things like that, to go out of his way to give us opportunities, really did help. Being able to join different environments and learning from different people from quite young has definitely

Left: In December 2020, Kathryn Bryce was crowned ICC Associate Player of the Decade. © ICC

Bottom: Kathryn Bryce’s batting is the perfect combination of power and touch. © ICC


I played boys’ cricket then on and it was so normal all the way through school to do that.”

Not all female players have experienced such a welcoming and accepting environment, but for Bryce, George Watson College was the perfect place to thrive.

***The allrounder’s story

with Scotland started with her debut in 2011 aged just 13. She represented the Under-17 side for five years and was captain for four of these. She put together a dominant

“AFTER THE FIRST YEAR IN THE [WOMEN’S

CRICKET] SUPER LEAGUE THAT CONSISTENCY

REALLY SHOT UP. HAVING TO PLAY

AGAINST THE BEST PLAYERS IN THE

WORLD, YOU JUST HAVE TO BE ON

IT MORE. I THINK THAT REALLY

PUSHED MY GAME ON. I JUST WANT

TO KEEP LEARNING NEW THINGS AND LEARN

FROM DIFFERENT PEOPLE.”

THE OPENER

economy rate under four. Her official T20I debut came against Uganda, where her side bowled the African nation out for 43, and chased down the target with 79 balls to spare with both Bryce sisters walking off unbeaten.

In June 2021, following a promising series against Ireland, Bryce became the first Scotland player, male or female, to break into the top ten ICC rankings for batting or bowling. She was ranked 10th in the T20I batting rankings and third in the allrounder ranks.

Personal achievements

benefitted me in the long-term.”Another important,

and rather fortunate piece of the puzzle, was the opportunity Bryce had to attend George Watson College, an independent school in Edinburgh, that enabled her to focus more deeply on her game. She was the first girl to represent the boys’ first XI, something that played a key role in her rapid development.

“It was a big thing. Going through school, they realised early on, when I was 13, that I was good at cricket, and rather than doing tennis or whatever in summer they asked if I wanted to [play] boys’ cricket.

performance alongside sister Sarah, sharing a record partnership of 336 against Lincolnshire Under-17. Bryce scored 173* and Sarah 132*. It was the start of a special career.

Many years later, in 2018, when all member nations were awarded T20 international status by the ICC, Bryce was named captain of Scotland. Since then, she has gone on to play 20 T20Is, scoring 547 runs, with a high score of 73* and an average of 42.07. With the ball, she’s taken 24 wickets at an average of 10.79 and an


“WE BOTH PUSH EACH OTHER

AND PROBABLY GET PRETTY

COMPETITIVE. IT’S JUST NICE HAVING

SOMEONE WHO WILL GO OUT IN

THE GARDEN WITH YOU WHETHER THAT’S TO PLAY CRICKET OR GO

KICK A BALL AROUND, JUST

HAVING SOMEONE WHO IS ALWAYS THERE TO PUSH

YOU ON IS HUGE.”

aside, Bryce is a team player through and through and she hopes her success reflects in the performances of the whole side. After all, the ultimate dream is much bigger. “As a team, the biggest thing is to qualify for a World Cup, and we’ve been pretty close a few times,” says the 23-year-old.

However, the opportunities to play are scarce for Scotland, which means the stars have to align perfectly come tournament time. The skipper calls for more regular international series around the high-pressure qualifying tournaments that will help the team learn and develop much quicker.

“I reckon not being able to compete at that top level consistently enough has meant it’s at that stage where everything must be perfect and go your way for us to qualify. But getting ourselves to a place where everything doesn’t have

to be perfect and certain people don’t have to pull off the best games of their career to qualify is the aim. Hopefully we’re taking steps in that direction.”

“Most of the competitions we have had for the past however many years is a European qualifier – trying to qualify for the global qualifier – or a global qualifier – trying to qualify for a World Cup; so, there’s not been many opportunities to play.”

“The games all count obviously because they count to your ranking points, but to play a consistent series, to learn over a block of time, even just a week, and develop over that time rather than playing each team once where it’s difficult to learn too much from that. If we could play in [more] series we would learn so much more; and it takes a lot more from us to figure players out and that in itself develops players and their skills.”

Left: Bryce’s natural ability to swing the ball is paired with years of dedication and discipline to hone her craft. © Special Arrangement

Below: Kathryn Bryce is now a professional cricketer, having earned a contract with the East Midlands regional side, Lightning. © Special Arrangement

***Environments are key to

any player’s development and learning from the world’s best has aided Bryce’s ascent into that category. In 2017, she was part of the ICC Women’s Big Bash League Associate Rookie Programme spending time with the Melbourne Stars. In 2018 she returned with the Adelaide Strikers.

Although it was a rather short experience, Bryce admits that she took a whole host of lessons from her stint in Australia. The opportunity to train and play alongside some of the best in the business holds her in good stead, she says.


THE OPENER

“I ENJOY TAKING ON THE

RESPONSIBILITY. IT’S QUITE

DIFFICULT AT TIMES WHEN WE HAVE SUCH AN

INEXPERIENCED TEAM WITH QUITE A LOT OF YOUNG

PEOPLE STILL IN THE SETUP,

SO, FOR ME, IT’S ABOUT PASSING

ON AS MUCH INFORMATION AS POSSIBLE WHILE

GETTING TO A PLACE WHERE WE CAN HELP EACH OTHER.”

Left: Mr and Mrs Bryce make sure to watch their daughters in action whenever they can. © Special Arrangement

Top Right: Bryce is aware of how her time in the Hundred can positively influence players in Scotland. © Special Arrangement

Right: Kathryn and Sarah Bryce have shared many memorable partnerships at both international and domestic level. © ICC


“Both [were] very good experiences. The first time was pretty cool to be part of the competition, having the opportunity to play with some of the best players in the world and bowl against them and learn from them. It was my first experience of a fully professional setup.”

“Looking back to 2018, having those couple of weeks to train with some great players and being around the group was really awesome to, again, see what that professional environment is like and how they’ve been successful over in Australia, but also what it takes to get to the next level. Also, learning about mentality when it comes to performances, preparation against specific players, and how that changes with the players that you know.”

The following year, in 2019, Bryce was afforded the opportunity to play for Loughborough Lightning in the ECB’s Women’s Cricket Super League. The right-hander lapped up the experience showcasing her skills in the competition where she was relatively unknown. Taking nine wickets in nine matches with her medium pace, Bryce was the side’s go-to opening bowler. She scored 42 runs in four innings – not out three times – and had a top score of 30, as she played solidly in a middle order rarely called upon.

“It’s often the case that not many people have faced you before, so the first year isn’t easy, but if you can perform your skill well you can be quite effective. The next challenge is, not settling, but questioning how am I going to continue


“I enjoy taking on the responsibility,” Bryce says of the captaincy. “It’s quite difficult at times when we have such an inexperienced team with quite a lot of young people still in the setup, so for me it’s about passing on as much [information] as possible while getting to a place where we can help each other.”

In her first season as a professional cricketer, she finished as the second highest wicket-taker in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy with 14 scalps in six matches, including best figures of 5 for 29. With the bat, her best score was 71*, and she scored a total of 141 runs across the competition. Despite her brilliant form Lightning finished bottom of the North group.

Although the 2021 domestic season with Lightning didn’t start as promisingly for the 23-year-old, the delayed Hundred competition provided Bryce with another star-studded

THE OPENER

“I THINK IT’S HUGE, REALLY, JUST HAVING THAT EXTRA SUPPORT TO

DEVELOP THE GAME BUT ALSO THE

OPPORTUNITIES TO PLAY AT A HIGHER

LEVEL MORE CONSISTENTLY WILL SHOW IN OUR SKILLS. EVEN WITH

ABTAHA [MAQSOOD] IN THE HUNDRED IT WILL SHOW

HOW MUCH THE EXPOSURE WILL

DO FOR HER,”tournament and a new learning environment. A top pick for the Trent Rockets, who are led by England superstar Natalie Sciver, Bryce had the platform to capture the attention of a global audience. She acknowledges that her presence in the competition is so important for not just herself, but her Scottish teammates as well.

“I think it’s huge, really, just having that extra support to develop the game but also the opportunities to play at a higher level more consistently will show in our skills. Even with Abtaha [Maqsood] in the Hundred it will show how much the exposure will do for her,” the Scotland skipper says. “But also, when you’re ready for it and you just want to learn and you have that ability to thrive in that environment, you can take that back to Scotland tours; and now it’s not just coming from me and Sarah but from her too. Having someone else’s perspective and different

experiences to take back to the Scotland team is huge, and for them to see what we’re doing and work hard in Scotland to say I want to be there as well.”

While she may be a role model to young players in Scotland, the unfortunate truth about Bryce’s situation is that without her professional contract in England, she may not have been able to sustain her rapid rise. However, when asked about her future with Scotland, she gives a typically diplomatic answer.

“The dream is for Scotland to push on with the best teams in the world and have that opportunity to have contracts there and compete at the top, that would be huge,” she says matter-of-factly.

There’s a glint in her eye that says she wants to push the boundaries and perform at the highest level. To be able to do that, the ICC need to invest in associate nations, allowing countries like Scotland to retain

to do well and be ready for whatever people come at me with next.”

Unfortunately for Bryce, 2019 marked the end of the WCSL, which meant there was no question of ‘second season syndrome’.

However, 2020 saw the introduction of the professional regional structure in England which provided Bryce and sister Sarah an opportunity to earn their first full-time contracts. The pair were roped in by the East Midlands region to play for Lightning in the domestic competitions. A newly professional cricketer accessing year-round training, Bryce now captains the youthful Lightning side.


Left: Kathryn Bryce was a member of the Trent Rockets team in the inaugural edition of The Hundred. © Special Arrangement

Right: Having spent time training in England and Australia, Kathryn Bryce is well aware of what it takes to succeed at the top level. © Special Arrangement

Below: Kathryn Bryce was appointed captain of Scotland in 2018. © ICC

their star players like Bryce. She needs to receive an attractive offer. There needs to be professionalism within associate nations to allow players to be the best they can be with all the resources they require. Otherwise, it is possible that the story of Bryce will follow the likes of Leigh Kasperek and Kirstie Gordon who had to pledge their allegiance to New Zealand and England respectively to make a living and push on their careers.

And while she acknowledges her privilege and realises how lucky she has been to have enjoyed a wonderful career so far; one feels a professional environment in the country could allow both Kathryn Bryce and Scotland to dominate in the decade to come as well.

Hannah Thompson is the founder of Women’s Cricket Chat and a doctoral researcher at Loughborough University exploring elite female cricketers’ perceptions and uses of social media. She tweets @HannahT1194.


Big, bold and brash, The Hundred finally exploded in a blaze of colour and pyrotechnics

at the Oval in late July, after a year’s delay due to Covid-19. The famous old south London venue has played witness to many landmark events, but as Kate Cross and Dane van Niekerk led their respective teams through an LED tunnel to be greeted by fireworks and music from DJ Abbie McCarthy, it ushered in a fresh new image for cricket in England.

The 100-ball tournament is designed to be action-packed and fast paced with an emphasis on entertainment to open cricket up to more families and young people. Not since the advent of T20 two decades ago has the game attempted anything as radical.

For all its lofty aims though, The Hundred has sparked fierce controversy over costs and their impact on the reserves of the England and Wales Cricket Board, its effect on men’s domestic and international cricket, and a women’s pay gap.

Yet early signs are that the

gamble of inserting a costly new format in peak summer and an expensive marketing exercise, seems to have paid off, at least in the short term. Audience figures have been striking and the women’s game is enjoying a higher profile than ever before. The long-term effects, of course, will be known further down the line.

That opening game, the first time a major UK sporting event has headlined with a women’s match, was broadcast live on terrestrial television on the BBC as well as by Sky. It duly attracted the biggest peak

Despite the animosity towards cricket’s newest format from within the men’s game, from a women’s cricket perspective, The Hundred has provided an opportunity to innovate more easily, increase visibility and build on the ECB’s new professional regional structure.

• JEREMY BL ACKMORE

THE OPENER

(THE) HUNDRED WAYS TO GROW THE GAME

© IC

C


TV audience on record for a women’s fixture in the UK, with almost two million people tuning in.

If the first delivery – a wide bowled by South African international Marizanne Kapp – was an inauspicious start, the game itself delivered the goods. In a thriller, van Niekerk struck 56 to help Oval Invincibles chase down 136 with just two balls to spare. There were plenty of the ECB’s target demographic among the 7,000-strong crowd too.

While many were beneficiaries of ticket giveaways through local clubs, schools and the NHS, the statistics for the opening rounds were still impressive. The record attendance for a professional women’s domestic game came at Lord’s when 13,537 saw London Spirit take on Oval Invincibles.

Overall, more than 100,000 people watched men’s or women’s matches live over the first seven days, while over 8.5 million saw some of the action on television

– 3.33 million of whom had not watched any other live cricket on TV this year.

The opening night was the culmination of three years’ work by Beth Barrett-Wild, Head of The Hundred – Women’s Competition and her team at the ECB. It left her with a mix of emotions.

“When that first ball was finally bowled at the Oval, there was huge, huge relief that we’d finally got there, but also an enormous feeling of pride and excitement,” she tells Women’s CricZone.

“We’ve talked so much about the opportunity that The Hundred gives for the women’s game in particular and opening the whole competition with that standalone women’s match and what that represented was so crucially important to how the competition got underway. It was an amazing night. It’s something that I will remember for the rest of my life.”

The new tournament features eight brand new city-based teams, each with women’s and men’s sides,

Right: Dane van Niekerk led Oval Invincibles to a thrilling win in the opening game of the tournament. © ICC

Below: The Hundred is providing an opportunity for young players like Charlotte Dean a wonderful platform to showcase their talent. © Don Miles


competing over five weeks. Men’s and women’s squads were selected through a draft system, with both competitions running in tandem.

Despite ‘bitter disappointment’ after Covid forced cancellation of the first year of the tournament, the delay gave Barrett-Wild’s team an opportunity to look afresh at how to deliver the women’s competition and increase visibility.

Playing double headers alongside the men’s games was already on the cards, but it was the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup final at the MCG in March 2020 which opened eyes as to what a standalone women’s game could achieve with the right support.

Describing that final, which attracted a record 86,174 spectators, as a wake-up call, Barrett-Wild says, “That opening match was just so critically important to make it really clear that the women’s Hundred is not an afterthought, and that we’re putting it front and centre. The opening game of this brand-new competition

is going to be played by women. It’s a real statement of intent about how important the women’s competition is to The Hundred.”

“It just really demonstrates what The Hundred is about. And that it is making cricket a sport that is accessible for everybody.”

Crowd pictures of young girls wearing Hundred shirts on the tournament website underline the point further. Female players feature prominently alongside the likes of Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler in promotional material on television, internet advertising and on billboards. Heather Knight and Kate Cross have also been immortalised as LEGO Minifigures. The profile of women’s cricket is higher than ever in England.

For the ECB, ensuring the women’s competition was given equal billing and marketing spend was paramount.

“Having that visibility for the female players alongside their male peers is very important. How we grow the profile of those players is a

way that we can really help to turbocharge the whole growth of the women’s game,” says Barrett-Wild.

She reports that players are thriving on their new profile, with follower counts on Twitter increasing by thousands overnight after standout performances.

“The fact that that’s happening, and that these players are becoming more recognisable… There’s been some amazing statistics around who the most searched players are on Google, and they’re all female players.

“I guess that’s not surprising, because at the moment, the male players have higher profiles, but what The Hundred is doing is creating that platform to create heroes of the women’s players, which is just so important, especially for young girls.”

She has been struck by the number of families attending women’s matches and has enjoyed seeing young girls and boys aspiring to be as good as a Danielle Wyatt or a Lauren Bell.

Perhaps 17-year-old

“WE’VE TALKED SO MUCH ABOUT

THE OPPORTUNITY THAT THE HUNDRED

GIVES FOR THE WOMEN’S GAME IN PARTICULAR AND OPENING THE WHOLE

COMPETITION WITH THAT STANDALONE WOMEN’S MATCH AND WHAT THAT REPRESENTED

WAS SO CRUCIALLY IMPORTANT TO HOW THE

COMPETITION GOT UNDERWAY. IT’S

SOMETHING THAT I WILL REMEMBER FOR THE REST OF

MY LIFE.”

THE OPENER

Left: Jemimah Rodrigues was a star for the Northern Superchargers. © ECB/ Getty Images


Alice Capsey most neatly encapsulated the ECB’s vision. Capsey’s breakthrough innings on her first appearance at Lord’s saw her take 59 off just 41 deliveries with few signs of nerves at playing on such a big stage. To add to the fairy-tale, Capsey has been coached by Sarah Taylor at Bede’s school, who herself made a storied comeback in the competition.

“I mean, how good was she? She was world class in that match at Lord’s,” Barrett-Wild says of the youngster’s innings. “For young girls coming through to be able to look up to her and be like, well hang on a minute, she’s not that much older than me and look what she’s doing. It just gives that opportunity that’s probably never really existed to this extent before. The women’s game is on this incredibly accelerated journey in terms of professionalism and investment and The Hundred just acts as another catalyst to really drive that stuff through.”

Northern Superchargers’ Indian star Jemimah Rodrigues also became a new hero to

millions for her exploits in the competition. Fans used the tournament app to vote her player of The Hundred during its opening week.

For their part, the players have relished the kind of big match atmosphere that they have previously only enjoyed at global ICC events.

Despite this, The Hundred remains deeply divisive, particularly in the men’s game which boasts long-held loyalties to county clubs. The counties have been the fabric that has held professional cricket together for more than 150 years but have seen their playing reserves raided by what critics call ‘manufactured teams’. The county 50-over tournament, the format in which England are world champions, is being contested, effectively, as a ‘development competition’ by youngsters and those who missed out on a Hundred gig. Lucrative T20 county fixtures have been squeezed, while the County Championship is pushed further into the margins of the season, less than ideal preparation for playing Test

Above: The players have relished the kind of big match atmosphere that’s seen in ICC events. © ECB/ Getty Images

Below: Natasha Farrant has been in splendid form for Oval Invincibles. © ECB/ Getty Images

“WE’RE ALREADY LOOKING AT WHAT

MIGHT HAPPEN NEXT YEAR AND

BEYOND. IT’S HOW DO WE CREATE

THE CONDITIONS THROUGH THE HUNDRED TO

COMMERCIALISE WOMEN’S CRICKET. WE JUST HAVE TO KEEP GROWING FROM HERE AND HOPEFULLY WE

WILL BE ABLE TO INCREASE THOSE

SALARIES.”


THE OPENER

cricket in India or Australia. In return, each county has been awarded £1.3 million annually.

Barrett-Wild understands some of the animosity within the men’s game, because it is steeped in such rich history and tradition. From a women’s perspective though, she says the game was not as tied to that structure, so there was an opportunity to innovate more easily. The ECB had scope to find a home for The Hundred as part of a new professional era for women’s cricket with eight new regional teams, six of them evolving from the old T20 Women’s Cricket Super League, which ran for four years until 2019.

“Alongside The Hundred, we’ve got our brilliant new regional structure and what really excites me is how those two things interact. The Hundred is obviously our shop window. It’s high-profile, high visibility, every game live on TV, big marketing investment, big attendances. But then underpinning that, is our new regional structure as that all-year round provision for those young players coming through, and the fact that, we’ve got 41 professional domestic contracts, in addition to The Hundred. That’s what’s going to accelerate the quality of women’s cricket.”

While agreeing that the WCSL helped improve performance by bridging the gap between domestic and international cricket, Barrett-Wild believes The Hundred offers greater benefits for the women’s game, with far higher levels of exposure and investment.

That extends to commercial partners and to partnerships including Topps Match Attax cards and LEGO, and linkups with music stars – as well as lucrative terrestrial and satellite TV deals.

Knight, Taylor, Bell, Mady Villiers, Natalie Sciver


and Sophia Dunkley are among those who have also been turned into avatars to revolutionise television coverage and which fans are also able to access on their phones through the Sky Sports app.

On the eve of The Hundred, comments by Cross, reported in The Daily Telegraph, sparked a debate about differences in wages earned by male and female players.

Indeed, although prize money is identical, pay deals for female players (ranging from £3,600 to £15,000) are significantly less than those for their male counterparts (£24,000 to £100,000). Barrett-Wild says the equal pay debate is a priority for future years.

“I’m working incredibly hard to try and make sure we close that gap as quickly as possible. We’ve always been very honest and open about that gap. We’ve never tried to pretend or hide the numbers.”

“What I’d like to stress, though, it is just a start point and hopefully, we’re not going to stay at the that level in the

future. We’re already looking at what might happen next year and beyond. It’s how do we create the conditions through The Hundred to really commercialise women’s cricket. The main commercial inputs to be able to close that gap are things around ticket revenue, commercial revenue and forecast revenue. We just have to keep growing from here and hopefully we will be able to increase those salaries and close that gap as quickly as possible.”

For all the historic statistics, success is much more than raw numbers. Barrett-Wild has clear long-term outcomes in mind.

• More young girls playing cricket and signing up for ECB programmes

• Increase in people watching women’s cricket live and on television, increasing the level of exposure to the game

• Creating a world-class competition that attracts the best players in the world, rivalling the Women’s Big Bash League

• Commercialising women’s cricket to reduce reliance on investment from the men’s game

Her other goal is more aspirational, almost immeasurable, bringing about a change in philosophy around gender in sport. The ECB have taken steps to introduce gender-neutral language such as ‘batters’ and ‘third’ (third man) to ensure they do not make anyone feel excluded.

“How can we use The Hundred as this catalyst to really drive female engagement with cricket, both in terms of watching and consuming it, but also playing it? So, yes, it’s a long-term game. There will be immediate measures, like crowd attendances and viewing figures, but actually, it will be really fascinating to see where we are in four years’ time.”

Jeremy Blackmore is a cricket journalist based in the UK and covers England and domestic women’s cricket for Women’s CricZone. He also contributes regularly to The Cricketer and Cricket Paper. He tweets @JeremyB_Writer.

Top Left: The ECB ensured that the women’s competition was given equal billing. © Don Miles

Left: Players like Sophia Dunkley have been turned into avatars to revolutionise TV coverage. © ECB/ Getty Images

Top Right: Barret-Wild believes The Hundred offers greater benefits for the women’s game. © ECB/ Getty Images

“IT JUST GIVES THAT OPPORTUNITY THAT’S PROBABLY

NEVER REALLY EXISTED TO THIS

EXTENT BEFORE. THE WOMEN’S GAME IS

ON THIS INCREDIBLY ACCELERATED JOURNEY IN TERMS OF

PROFESSIONALISM AND INVESTMENT

AND THE HUNDRED JUST ACTS AS

ANOTHER CATALYST TO REALLY DRIVE

THAT STUFF THROUGH.”


Best of WOMEN’S CRICZONE Website

Why women should have more opportunities to fail in Tests

Shajin Mohanan SThe 27-year-old Rana came back from spending years in the wilderness. She had given away 32 runs in an over against Sophie Devine in a T20I and then played only three more internationals before being left out. She went back to domestic cricket, toiled hard and put in the tough yards and earned her place back, and then went on to hit a sublime 80 to save the Test match for her side. So, you don’t have to fight that fight for Rana; she will do that by herself.

What the cricketing community should fight for is for Rana’s right to fail and be utterly unremarkable and have a terrible time against one of the best batters in the world. You should be talking about Vastrakar getting more opportunities to attempt that swipe across the wicket and fail. You should be fighting for their right to exist in a system where they have more opportunity to fail (or succeed).

The Great Indian CircusAnanya Upendran

Sport is a ruthless place. Players come and go – culled for poor performance or overlooked after an untimely injury. It’s the circle of an athlete’s life. No one plays forever, just like no one coaches forever. You may not like it, but you learn to live with it.

Much like India’s questionable selections earlier this year, we will learn to live with this poorly handled change of guard as well. And while the issue itself will be left to fester in a few days; one hopes that the questions thrown up are not. The entertainers within the Indian women’s cricket system must start being accountable. They can no longer vanish into their cabinets. We can humour this circus no longer.

Brooke Halliday is a left-hander and has a New Zealand central contract

Sudarshanan SFebruary 23, 2021: Halliday’s first taste of international cricket. The

25-year-old walked in to bat at No.7 with New Zealand tottering at five for 104 against England. She showed no sign of nerves, unveiling a flurry of crisp drives, showcasing her nifty footwork and gathering runs at ease. She became only the sixth New Zealand batter to score a half century on ODI debut.

In the next match, Halliday found herself in the middle earlier at five for 34. And again, some attractive runs ensued as she hit her second half century on the trot. A pristinely timed cover drive took her to the landmark, making her the only Kiwi, across gender, to register fifty-plus scores in her first two ODIs.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint: Sophia Dunkley not too worried about England selection

Jeremy BlackmoreOn taking over as head coach, Keightley was keen to get a closer look at Dunkley and included her in the wider England training bubble last summer. She then came into the side for the final two T20Is against West Indies at Derby, replacing Fran Wilson at No.6. However, the strength of England’s batting means there is a tough challenge for places behind that top five, with the experienced Wilson and Lauren Winfield-Hill also in the mix – something the 22-year-old is very aware of.

“The batting line-up with England at the minute is full of world class players,” said Dunkley. “So, it’s a very hard line-up to get into. I think for me, I’m trying to think of it as like a marathon, not a sprint.”

“I’m fully confident in my ability and if I do well, hopefully I get an opportunity. If not, then I’ll try my best to get back in. But it’s not the be-all and end-all just now.”

The irrational belief that fuelled Canterbury’s magical win

Ananya Upendran“There was just a real lack of belief

in what they could do,” Morgan said.

“I think people are really quick to tell you what they can’t do, but they are very slow to tell you what they can do. When I started in the role, I talked to the team a lot about the fact that I wanted to hear more about what they thought they could do. [It was about] trying to instil a little bit of belief in their own ability; because from the outside perspective looking in, I certainly knew that they had more ability than what they were showing, and it was really important that they started to believe that, [because] they wouldn’t really turn results around until that happened.”

What helped Morgan’s cause were the return of Ebrahim and Satterthwaite, and Tahuhu’s availability for the entire season. He acknowledged their influence on the remainder of the squad and how they banded together in an effort to help the team move forward from the disappointment.

I still see myself playing for India again: Niranjana Nagarajan

Gomesh SAt 32, Niranjana still has her eyes on the Indian team. “I still see myself making a comeback,” she says, adding, “I have not lost hope. I have worked hard. Till the time I play, I would be looking to make a comeback. I plan my practice, training and everything based on what could take me back to the Indian team.”

She provides an interesting perspective about debuts and comebacks. Niranjana feels that making a comeback is harder than a debut. “If you are giving 100 per cent for your debut, you have to give 200 per cent for your come back. When you make your debut, everyone will be talking about you, and you know it is just a matter of time. But when you are trying to make a comeback, no one is going to talk about it till you do it. It could be demotivating at times, but one has to take it in the stride and do what it takes to make it back to the team.”

‘The last year has taught me to respect life more’

Ananya UpendranOut of the national side, Pandey turned out for Goa in the 2020-21 Senior Women’s One-Day tournament in March and had a middling season. While she admits being disappointed with the results, she says, returning to the domestic circuit allowed her to rediscover the simple joys of playing. After all, having been cooped up indoors for the better part of a year, she was “thankful for the opportunity to be out on the field”.

“The last year and a half has actually taught me to respect life more. I wouldn’t say my perspective towards life has changed, but just that I am so thankful for the life that I have because there are so many out there who are finding it difficult even to find one day’s meal. I really understand how privileged I am and how thankful I [should be] for the life that I have. The very fact that I am able to do something I love is a huge plus for me.”

Passion, perseverance and a tireless work ethic fuel Prathyusha’s India dream

Gomesh SPrathyusha’s unwavering dedication to the game is one of the traits that has kept her going over the years. Krishna recalls an incident when she was not selected for the under-16 team once. Coming back from the Karnataka State Cricket Association, he tried to cheer her by diverting the topic and asking her if they should go for a movie.

“She said, ‘No, no, daddy, let’s go to the ground.’ That afternoon she went to the ground and practised. We never had to say anything about practice or cricket. With education, we have to keep telling her. In fact, as soon as she heard about the India selection, I thought she will relax now as the moment has come. But she immediately went down to the nets

FROM THE ARCHIVES


A selection of the best articles from www.womenscriczone.com

and practised for an hour, and then only she came up.”

Sneh Rana 2.0: India’s new lean, mean, spin machine

S SudarshananRana’s returns over the last couple of years meant she couldn’t be kept out of the national side for long. She received a call-up for the tour to England and made her Test debut on Wednesday (June 16). Part of a two-pronged off-spin bowling attack that India chose to go ahead with, Rana returned four wickets in her first go with the red cherry.

“She’s bowled as if she’s been in the team for a long time and that gives me immense pleasure,” states Al Khadeer.

It is 2021. Rana is now a Test cricketer and will also possibly play a role in the ODIs and T20Is. And it could well make the other toilers in the domestic circuit hopeful of getting their due. Even with a skill that is not so special.

The Tazmin Brits story – from near-fatal accident to series-defining performances

S SudarshananTazmin won the gold medal in the 2007 World Youth Championships in Athletics for javelin throw and was all set to take part in the 2012 Summer Olympics. But a near-fatal accident months before the competition meant that all those dreams came to an abrupt halt. She was driving back from Potchefstroom when she lost control of the car and was flung out of it. It landed on her, breaking her pelvis and dislocating her hip. She was in the Intensive Care for about three weeks and in the hospital for two months before she could gradually start walking.

“I thought I wouldn’t be able to walk again, I wouldn’t be able to do sports again,” Tazmin told this website in 2019. She had to undergo multiple surgeries, which involved inserting screws to get those joints in order and then the removal of the

screws. But she managed to recover quicker than anticipated and returned to sports. However, a return to javelin was a step too far – her lower body unable to take the stress of the intensive hip and foot movements involved in the sport.

Shabnim Ismail and relentlessnessGomesh S

Relentless could mean ‘unceasingly intense’ or ‘refusing to give up’. Rafael Nadal is relentless; so are Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams. In cricket, Pat Cummins is relentless, and Cheteshwar Pujara has displayed this characteristic at times. The more celebrated players, like the Steve Smiths, Virat Kohlis, Sophie Devines or the Meg Lannings have many other qualities, but relentlessness is not one of them.

It is a tag that is far more difficult to earn because it is more than just the weight of runs or wickets. It is not something that makes the cut to be part of the highlights package. Among the current players in the women’s game, the first name that should pop up in a discussion about relentlessness is Shabnim Ismail.

Confident, focussed and unfazed Indrani Roy, a step closer to her international dream

Ananya UpendranIf Roy’s relaxed manner and supreme self-belief are anything to go by, when she does make her international debut, the nerves will be minimal. However, she insists that she is not looking too far ahead, and her focus for now is to learn as much as she can from the senior players in the squad and keep improving.

“Not everyone gets the opportunity to play for their country. It’s years of struggle that get you there. But this is only the beginning. It’s one thing to get into the team, but another entirely to perform and stay there. Whenever I get a chance I will do my best and try and win matches for the team.”

“I want to perform well and play for India for 10-15 years. That is the new dream.”

As long as the conversation keeps going, that’s all you can ask for: Katherine Brunt

Jeremy Blackmore“These things don’t happen

overnight, but as long as the conversation keeps going, that’s all you can ask for. It’s when you keep quiet and you don’t do anything, you don’t say anything, that things don’t move forward. Because people are quite happy to keep going as they are unless you say something.”

“I think it’s great that girls are speaking out, and they’re brave enough to do that. But equally, sometimes the positive message gets lost in that, which is what has happened in this article is that it’s been spun a little bit, and we’re forgetting about the positive part of it, which I’m only going to bang on about because I’m here to play the Hundred and get on with that and do the best I can for my team, regardless of all the other things that are flying around.”

Turning it in: Sneh Rana shines on Test debut

Ananya UpendranThere are some athletes in this world who you can never bring yourself to dislike. No matter who they beat, what they win (or lose), or how they play, whether you admit it or not, you secretly celebrate their success – sometimes grudgingly – and even feel their heartbreak.

Within Indian women’s cricket, Sneh Rana is one of those players. Maybe it’s her smile, or the way she greets you with a little nod of her head. Maybe it’s joy with which she celebrates her teammates successes, or her compassion for those around. Maybe it’s got nothing to do with her game, or maybe it’s all of the above. But whatever it is, Rana is the kind of player you cheer for whenever she takes the field.

The year that wasn’tShajin Mohanan S

From those who can do no wrong for Australia to someone who can do no wrong against Australia, Chamari Atapattu showed up for the Women’s T20 Challenge in UAE and immediately mistook Velocity’s attack for Australia’s despite none of them being present in the vicinity. On the other hand, Velocity players spent days in quarantine and bio-bubble only to play two back-to-back matches, get bowled out for 47, all in the space of twelve hours. Which prompted us to wonder if there can be a physics pun using the team’s name.

Velocity’s 47 all-out also meant naysayers from all the 36 corners of the internet started talking about the standard of women’s cricket and how collapses only happen in women’s cricket as men’s cricket is played with bowling machines these days.

Deepti Sharma: Made for the long haul

Ananya UpendranMark guard. Adjust helmet. Walk towards square leg. Adjust left glove. Adjust right glove. Adjust helmet. Walk back. Mark guard again. Settle into stance. Double tap. Look up. Single tap. Single tap. Forward/ back foot defence. A call of ‘Waiting’ or ‘NOOOO!’. Check alignment of feet, bat and head. Go again.

For 241 balls, over the course of 308 minutes across two innings, Sharma religiously repeated her routine. Sometimes, just to break things up, she walked down the track and patted down the pitch. Sometimes, she stood her ground and practised her shot again. And at other times, she simply looked at her partner and absently smiled or nodded. But each time, before every delivery, she scratched her guard again, and reset her focus – those steely eyes settling in on the red orb at the other end.


COVER STORY


SHAFALI’S SOPHOMORESUMMERA girl from Rohtak, Haryana, 17-year-old Shafali Verma has quickly proven how vital her contributions are for India’s immediate success; but her influence extends beyond that to the future of Indian batting too.

• K ARUNYA KESHAV

When Katherine Brunt made her Test debut for

England in 2004, Shafali Verma was just seven months old.

In 2021, when Verma plays her first game in whites for India, Brunt is old enough to be her mum. Brunt’s words, not ours. Verma is 17, Brunt 36.

The Bristol Test pits the nonchalant gum-chewing, bat-twirling teenage opener against the fired up fast bowling veteran whose swing is as dramatic as her expressions. Twenty-three international caps against 227. A big-hitting batter who has never played a competitive red-ball game

before, facing an all-time great taking the new ball under perfectly cloudy English skies.

One is at the start of her career, the other in its autumn. Each wants to get the better of the other.

Verma lives by a philosophy her father drilled into her years ago. “Right from when he started teaching me to play, he stressed on this one thing: To be the best in cricket, you have to beat the best.”

“Agar naam achcha banana hai, to achche ko hi achche se khelna padega.”

The battle that’s been bubbling all afternoon bursts into life in Brunt’s sixth over of the innings. It’s Brunt’s first ball after tea on day two. Verma

“RIGHT FROM WHEN HE STARTED

TEACHING ME TO PLAY, HE STRESSED

ON THIS ONE THING: TO BE THE BEST IN

CRICKET, YOU HAVE TO BEAT

THE BEST.”

© IC

C


smashes it over the bowler’s head. The next ball, she uses the pace to guide it to third man. The over goes for 14 runs.

The best part? This contest is just getting started.

And it will go on to define Verma’s summer in England.

***When we speak to Verma,

she’s been in England for three months. It’s the “death overs” of her trip, she jokes – when “you just want the match to get over quickly and we can all go home!” She has presents packed for her little sister and is looking forward to eating local

Indian food; Indian food in England is good, but y’know…

It’s been a big few months for her, personally and career-wise: A Test and ODI debut. A new coach. Better plans from opposition bowlers. Demands on her fitness and fielding. Expectations as an overseas pro in The Hundred for Birmingham Phoenix. Months away from home. Unfamiliar weather, food, faces and tongues.

“It’s a little different. It’s a little tough,” she smiles about her time in England. “But I’m enjoying with my teammates.”

And all in just the second year of her international career.

For students, sportspersons, singers or TV shows, the Sophomore Slump is real. The pressure is high for the second year or second album to match the heights of a successful debut. Verma, in her sophomore year in international cricket, is working hard to avoid this fate.

Her first year was just like those successful debut albums: full of smash hits, records and chart-topping numbers. Having got her T20I cap in September 2019

“BEFORE THE TEST, PEOPLE

THOUGHT ‘THIS GIRL

WILL GO OUT THERE AND HIT’. [BUT]

WHEN I GOT TO KNOW THAT WE WOULD BE PLAYING

TESTS, I STARTED

FOLLOWING TEST MATCHES AND I LEARNT A LOT. NOBODY

TOLD ME TO CHANGE MY

GAME, I DID IT ON MY OWN. I BROUGHT

IN CHANGES, LIKE, I KNEW I HAVE TO WAIT

AND PLAY, AND RESPECT THE GOOD BALLS

AND BOWLER. IN T20S, WE HAVE TO HIT

EVEN THE GOOD BALLS,

BUT I CUT THAT OUT IN

TESTS. I TOOK TIME AND

STAYED AT THE CREASE.”

COVER STORY


hit – big sixes and good shots,” Suman Sharma, who was on the coaching staff on that tour, remembered. “She didn’t wait for singles and all. She’d stand there and hit.”

This early assessment of Verma is shared among several people who saw her in those early years playing cricket for Haryana. Raw. Exciting. Can hit. Can change the game. Like Sehwag – good hand-eye coordination. Like Dhoni – not great technique

but hits big sixes. Natural hitter. Doesn’t bother with singles. The narrations of that time have common threads.

Verma has herself contributed to this portrait, declaring how she loves stepping out and going over the bowler’s head and imposing herself with the straight hits. Father and daughter have shared stories of six-hitting contests in the park with her brother, with

against South Africa in Surat, she went on to break Sachin Tendulkar’s record and become the youngest Indian to score an international fifty. She hit more sixes than anyone else and carried India to the final of the Women’s T20 World Cup 2020, where she became the youngest player to feature in a World Cup final and briefly held the No.1 ranking for batting.

Halfway into her second year, results have been mixed, but her growth has been fascinating. Not only is this an important chapter in what will likely be a long career for Verma, but it will also define the path of an Indian team in generational transition, on and off the field.

***On the A tour to Australia

in December 2019, a couple of months after her international debut, Verma started out with a blistering 124 off 78 balls. “She did not care which bowler was [in] front of her. She used to

Right: Verma is a swift learner, always looking for ways to improve her batting. © ICC

Left: Verma burst on to the scene playing after a couple of excellent innings for Velocity in the 2019 Women’s T20 Challenge. © BCCI

Below: “I want to be that player whose name stands apart,” says Verma. © ICC


the winner getting Rs 5 or 10 for every six. They had trained under flyovers in Rohtak, so the girl would learn to hit straight.

Like Virender Sehwag, whom she’s often compared to, she too sometimes sings between balls, she says. “It depends on my mood. If I’m relaxed, then I start singing. If in two-three innings I haven’t scored much, and then a couple of balls come off the bat well, then I start singing.”

And she likes her shots. In the first T20I against South Africa in March 2021, her first match since the World Cup final a year before, her first scoring shot, off the third ball

COVER STORY

about her 83-ball 63. “She adapted beautifully,” Raj said after the drawn Test. “Her fifty in the second innings was a beautiful fifty. In the [first innings 96], she scored a good knock, but this fifty came with a more sorted head and a little more experience, and those sweetly timed drives. It was beautiful to watch.”

“Before the Test, people thought ‘this girl will go out there and hit’,” Verma chuckles. “[But] when I got to know that we would be playing Tests, I started following Test matches and I learnt a lot. Nobody told me to change my game, I did it on my own.”

she faced, was a six. On Test debut, she went for a boundary when batting on 96 – and was caught. WV Raman, when he was India coach, suggested that she watch videos of Viv Richards; “Her eyes lit up,” he said in a chat on Sony.

But if this gives an impression of a one-trick player, it is an outdated one. While the big hitting defined Verma’s first year, her brisk evolution is the signature of her second. She constantly works on herself.

Mithali Raj, India Test captain, pointed to Verma’s second innings in the Bristol Test as proof of this, gushing

Above: With 163 runs in five matches, Shafali Verma almost single-handedly took India to the T20 World Cup final in 2020. © ICC

Right: Shafali Verma has quickly become India’s first choice opener across formats. © ICC


“WHAT IS TECHNIQUE? THAT WHICH HELPS YOU

GET RUNS OR WICKETS. IF SOMEONE IS

CONSISTENTLY MAKING

RUNS IN A PARTICULAR

STYLE, THEN AS A

COACH, YOU SHOULDN’T

TINKER WITH IT. IF YOU RESTRICT

SOMEONE’S NATURAL

GAME, IT’S NOT GOOD. BEING A COACH OR

SUPPORT STAFF, YOU HAVE TO BE

VERY PRECISE ABOUT WHAT TO DO WITH

WHAT PLAYER. AND RAMAN

HAS HANDLED HER REALLY

WELL.”

“I brought in changes, like, I knew I have to wait and play, and respect the good balls and bowler. In T20s, we have to hit even the good balls, but I cut that out in Tests. I took time and stayed at the crease.”

“I enjoyed it a lot, I learnt a lot.”

Sharma calls her a “quick learner”. Raman, who coached her from December 2018 to May 2021, sees in her “an intelligent kid” and has been all praise for the work she puts in between series.

For instance, in that India A tour of Australia, after the blazing start, Verma got stuck against spin and slower balls in the power play, finishing the limited-overs tour with a sequence of 0, 11, 1, 0. Molly Strano’s off-spin got her in four of the six games. But come the World Cup a few months later,

she took the same bowler for 13 runs in an over, including the first six of the World Cup. By then, she had worked on using her feet more to get to the pitch of the ball.

Where she once used to try to hit herself out of a run of dots – think the 2019 South Africa series – she is now humbler. In the second T20I against England, she saw out a maiden from left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone, even as she attacked the pacers, curbing her instincts to hit out and instead respecting the spin.

“I have seen her range of shots also improve,” added Sharma. “Earlier it was mid-wicket and point. Now she’s almost playing all over the ground.”

“As a player, you understand what needs work,” says Verma. “After every match

I understand what went wrong and what I need to work on.”

It is to India’s credit that they have given Verma the space to figure out her own game. “It’s a simple case of allowing that kid to do what she wants to and find out what it is that she needs to do,” Raman said during the World Cup. “There is no baggage in her head and it’s pointless to put something into her head. Let her play the way she knows to play.”

“What is technique? That which helps you get runs or wickets. If someone is consistently making runs in a particular style, then as a coach, you shouldn’t tinker with it,” Ajay Ratra, former India wicket-keeper from Haryana who has worked with Verma at the NCA, explains this coaching philosophy. “If


COVER STORY

Left: In two years, Verma has already bashed 30 sixes in T20Is - third most for India. © BCCI

Right: Verma turned out for Birmingham Phoenix in The Hundred. © Women’s CricZone

Below: If a Women’s IPL were to be added to the calendar, Verma would, no doubt, be its biggest star. © BCCI

you restrict someone’s natural game, it’s not good. Being a coach or support staff, you have to be very precise about what to do with what player. And Raman has handled her really well.”

This approach gives Verma the freedom to fly – and also the space to fall.

“You’ve got to understand that she is not going to be consistent,” England opener Tammy Beaumont said during The Hundred, while analysing Verma’s stuttering run in the competition. “The way she plays, her age … she’s not going to come off every single game. But that’s where you’ve just got to support her and know that the one or two days that she does it in the game, she is going to win you a game single-handedly.”


“IF A BOWLER TAKES YOUR

WICKET AGAIN AND AGAIN, YOU

UNDERSTAND WHERE

YOU WENT WRONG, WHAT

YOU NEED TO IMPROVE. AFTER ALL,

THIS IS LEARNING.

THIS IS HOW YOU

UNDERSTAND WHERE YOU’RE

WEAK, HOW TO REACT. I’LL WORK

ON THAT TOO NEXT.”

on the back foot,” Sharma explained. “That is her strength. But they used that as her weakness also. They fed her that, and then bowled close to her, and then she struggled.”

Former England captain Nasser Hussain said on commentary, “If I was coaching Verma, I would say, ‘You’re good enough not to back away expecting the short ball. Just react to the short ball.’”

Verma sees in this an opportunity. “If a bowler takes your wicket again and again, you understand

Fortunately for India, Verma demands a high standard from herself. During lockdown, ahead of the series against South Africa, having identified that the short ball might be a weak spot, she faced hundreds of bouncers sent down by Ranji bowlers from the Haryana men’s team. She concentrated on foot movement, and simply getting used to a fast projectile coming at her.

Which brings us back to Brunt.

In the summer, Verma has played out Brunt’s swing with the new ball, taken on the slightly older one in whites and disdainfully dispatched her to the ropes in coloured clothes. In the second T20I, she creamed Brunt for five consecutive fours in one memorable over.

At the same time, in ten innings across formats, Brunt has dismissed Verma five times and had one catch dropped. Three times bowled, twice for 0 and every time accompanied by a passionate celebration or send-off.

“I enjoy her bowling” – there’s another laugh from Verma – “It’s always that either I hit her or she gets me out!”

In attempting to deal with the short ball, Verma has been backing away to the leg side. This has meant the full set of stumps are exposed at times. In the first T20I against England, she was bowled when the ball beat her outside edge and hit the leg stump. It’s also made her vulnerable to Brunt’s slower delivery.

“She hits boundaries

where you went wrong, what you need to improve. After all, this is learning. This is how you understand where you’re weak, how to react.”

And almost reassuringly: “I’ll work on that too next.”

***Among the particularly

haunting images after the Indian team’s loss in the

final of the T20 World Cup 2020 was a disconsolate Verma. She had dropped Alyssa Healy early in the game, and then

fallen for two in a stiff chase of 185. Under

the MCG lights and the gaze of a record audience,

the final took the shine off an otherwise successful

tournament for her: 163 runs from five games at a strike-rate of 158.25. As Harmanpreet Kaur put a consoling arm around her and Harleen Deol wiped her tears, Verma looked very much like the heart-broken 16-year-old that she was.

It was a lesson in failure for the youngster, but it was also a

reminder of how much and how quickly India were depending on her to win them games.

Since Verma’s debut, no other player has scored as many runs in T20I wins for their team (566 until the England

tour). Of the top teams, among those what have

at least 200 runs in this period, only Sophie Devine,

Beth Mooney and Sune Luus have a better average than her 37.73 in winning causes. In nine T20Is that India have lost with her in the XI, Verma averages

just 11, showing just how much they depend on

her to get them off to a good start.

The concern


in Verma’s second year is not runs or technique – as we have seen, she’s likely to sort that out – but in the evolution of the team. Especially with the World Cup around the corner.

Except for a few members, India have struggled to embrace the free-flowing modern batting style typified by their big-hitting opener. Among Indians with at least 200 runs since Verma’s debut, only she and Smriti Mandhana have a T20I strike rate over 100. In ODIs, only Mandhana scores at better than 80 for India since the last World Cup. Where Australia and England have average first innings totals of 279.5 and 246.75, India have only averaged 207.4 batting first since the last World Cup.

In such an environment, Verma the player is vital for the team’s immediate success. But her influence extends beyond that to the future of Indian batting too.

The stirring tale of a young girl from Rohtak, Haryana, who got her hair cut so she could pass off for a boy while playing cricket; of the little sister who played instead of her ill brother at an Under-12 school competition and was Player of the Tournament; flourishing under the watchful eye of her jeweller dad who nurtured the dreams of his most precious gem – Verma’s inspiring story has already been told in TV advertisements and interviews.

“The interest factor has increased in Haryana among girls since Shafali’s success,” agrees Ratra. “We don’t have a large pool of players, so it’s a good sign that when such a player grows and comes into the limelight, other upcoming players get inspired, not just for Haryana but for India.”

COVER STORY

“THE INTEREST FACTOR HAS INCREASED IN HARYANA

AMONG GIRLS SINCE SHAFALI’S

SUCCESS. WE DON’T HAVE A

LARGE POOL OF PLAYERS, SO

IT’S A GOOD SIGN THAT WHEN

SUCH A PLAYER GROWS AND COMES INTO

THE LIMELIGHT, OTHER

UPCOMING PLAYERS GET

INSPIRED, NOT JUST FOR HARYANA BUT

FOR INDIA.”

mindset has also changed. We are not working on the perfect defence, the perfect drive … We are telling them, there is nothing wrong in playing sweep shots or improvised shots.”

Today, as Indian batters work on improving their scoring, there is more centre-wicket practice rather than in the nets to give them a sense of how far their shots will go; heavy iron-filled balls are used in power-hitting drills; trainers are urged to work on core and arm muscles.

A women’s IPL, still conspicuously absent from the calendar, could bring it all together. When this tournament starts, Verma will likely be its biggest star, and stand as proof of the kind of potential it can unearth.

It’s a lot to put on such young shoulders, so early into an international career. But these two years of Shafali Verma

But not only does Verma inspire young girls to play cricket, she inspires them to play in a particular way. On the domestic circuit, her primetime feats are hastening a batting mindset change first sparked by the Harmanpreets and Smritis a few years ago.

Watching these players, as well as those from other top countries, on TV has prodded domestic batters to play more positively. The focus is on scoring, rather than the classical style of the game. About attacking, rather than saving a match.

“Two or three years ago, as coach also, we used to teach them the perfect cover drive, the perfect cut, the perfect lofted shot,” Sharma, who has coached Kerala as well as Challenger teams, explained.

“But the girls used to ask me, ‘We are playing in the perfect way, why are we still not scoring runs?’ So, to answer them, I started teaching them how to play in the gaps, how to play lofted shots in the beginning of the match, how to use the crease, use their feet in the powerplay. The coaches’

© W

omen

’s Cr

icZo

ne


have shown that she’s up to it. “I want to be that player whose name stands apart,” she says.

The chants of that name are only going to get louder.

Karunya Keshav is a cricket journalist and co-author of The Fire Burns Blue – a history of women’s cricket in India. She tweets @kuks.

Right: Verma is unsurprisingly a crowd favourite. © ICC

Below: The influence of Verma’s success extends beyond the immediate success of the Indian team to the future of Indian batting too. © ICC


NUMBERS GAME


Draws and slow scoring rates are the most salient features of international women’s cricket’s most neglected format. However, one hopes, if recent trends are anything to go by, there is an increase in the number of red-ball matches for women.

• JOHN LE ATHER

TESTING TIMES: RED-BALL TRENDS OVER THE YEARS

2021 is a notable year in the recent history of Test cricket; one that may signal a revival for

international women’s cricket’s most neglected format. For the first time since 2014, there will be two Test matches played in the same calendar year. Having faced England at Bristol in June, India’s return to the longest format also means that Test cricket has expanded beyond the confines of the Women’s Ashes for the first time in seven years.

Since the International Women’s Cricket Council merged with the ICC in 2005, there has been a general decline in both the overall number of Test matches being played, and the number

of teams playing the format. Since 2005, just five nations have played a Test, with Netherlands, who played a solitary match against South Africa in 2007, the only newcomer to the format in that time. The last multi-Test series was played between England and India in 2006 – the last year before 2014 to feature two or more Tests. Eight of the last 11 one-off matches played in the format since 2008 have been Ashes Tests between England and Australia.

The 2010s featured just eight Test matches overall, the lowest total since the 1940s, and the fewest played in an uninterrupted decade. (The first Test was played in 1934, and the first post-war Test was played in 1948).

In 2014, when India beat England in the one-off Test at Wormsley, Smriti Mandhana scored a half-century. © Don Miles


NUMBERS GAME

With no further matches on the immediate agenda, it will be hoped the BCCI’s renewed interest doesn’t represent a false dawn for women’s Test cricket. In 2014, after an eight-year hiatus, India played, and won, Tests against both England at Wormsley and South Africa at Mysore. After these successes however, India wouldn’t don whites again until Bristol 2021.

While in retrospect, the 1970s-2000s period represents something of a boom for Tests, with at least 20 matches in each decade, the full history of the format still amounts to just 141 matches since the inaugural game between England and Australia at Brisbane in 1934.

By contrast, there have been 2,190 men’s Tests played in the same period. There have been more men’s Tests played since the start of the 2017-18 season than there have

WOMEN’S TEST MATCHES BY DECADE

DECADE TESTS NATIONS

1930s 7 3 (AUS, ENG, NZ)

1940s 5 3 (AUS, ENG, NZ)

1950s 12 3 (AUS, ENG, NZ)

1960s 17 4 (AUS, ENG, NZ, SA)

1970s 24 6 (AUS, ENG, IND, NZ, SA, WI)

1980s 21 4 (AUS, ENG, IND, NZ)

1990s 24 6 (AUS, ENG, IND, NZ, PAK, SL)

2000s 22 9 (AUS, ENG, IND, IRE, NED, NZ, PAK, SA, WI)

2010s 8 4 (AUS, ENG, IND, SA)

2020s 2 3 (AUS, ENG, IND)

WOMEN’S TEST MATCHES BY THE DECADE

THIS LACK OF EXPERIENCE

PLAYING LONG-FORM

CRICKET INTERNATIONALLY IS COMPOUNDED

BY THE COMPLETE ABSENCE OF

WOMEN’S MULTI-DAY CRICKET AT

DOMESTIC LEVEL. INDIA, IN 2018, WERE THE LAST

NATION TO MOTH-BALL THEIR

MULTI-DAY DOMESTIC

COMPETITION, WHILE NEITHER ENGLAND NOR

AUSTRALIA HAVE PLAYED

ANY WOMEN’S DOMESTIC

FIRST-CLASS CRICKET SINCE

THE 1990S.Bottom: England played a non-Ashes Test for the first time in seven years when they took on India in Bristol. © ECB/ Getty Images


3-DAY VS 4-DAY WOMEN’S TESTS

MATCH TYPE 3-DAY 4 & 5-DAY ALL

Matches 63 78 141

Runs per wicket 23.4 27.57 27.68

Balls per wicket 66.86 77.17 72.51

Runs per over 2.1 2.14 2.12

Wins 21 (33.3%) 30 (38.5%) 51 (36.2%)

Draws 42 (66.6%) 48 (61.5%) 90 (63.8%)

1934-PRESENT 2000-PRESENT

Women Men Women Men

Matches 141 2190 31 947

Wins51 1474 16 741

36.2% 67.3% 51.6% 78.2%

Draws90 714 15 206

63.8% 32.6% 48.4% 21.8%

TIES 0 2 0 0

Above: Meg Lanning is yet to play a non-Ashes Test match in her career so far. © Don Miles

reverse of that seen in men’s Tests in the same period – 67:33 in favour of wins.

The move from three-day to four-day women’s Tests from the 1970s onward (the last three-day women’s Test was played in 1984), saw the proportion of draws drop slightly.

In both men’s and women’s

cricket in recent times, the proportion of drawn Tests has decreased. While there have been more wins than draws in women’s Tests since 2000, draws remain twice as common in the women’s game (48.4 per cent) as they are in the men’s in the same period (21.8 per cent).

*The only 5-day women’s Test was played between Australia & England, at North Sydney Oval in 1992. The match was drawn.Note: Balls per wicket and runs per over stats exclude the 2nd innings of the 6th India v West Indies Test at Jammu in 1976, as there is no available record of the number of overs bowled.

been women’s Tests in total since 1934.

Women’s Tests have been characterised throughout their history by a preponderance of draws. In all, 90 of the 141 matches have finished as draws (63.8 per cent). The win to draw percentage in women’s Tests is virtually the


NUMBERS GAME

FALL OF WICKETS BY INNINGS IN TEST MATCHES SINCE 2000

The rate at which wickets fall in women’s Test cricket (72.4 balls per wicket) means it would require an average of 483 overs to take 40 wickets.

Adjusting for the different rate at which wickets fall per innings, this comes down to 457 overs since 2000, but this still exceeds the expected overs for a four-day women’s Test match (400). The rate in men’s

Tests since 2000 equates to 409 overs for 40 wickets, well inside the 450 available overs in a five-day match.

In men’s Tests, wickets fall at an accelerated rate with each progressive innings, but women’s Test matches don’t follow the same pattern, stalling the progress of the match and making draws more likely.

In the history of women’s Test cricket, there have been six matches in which all 40 wickets have fallen, accounting for just 4.3 per cent of all matches in the format. For men’s Tests in the same period, all 40 wickets have fallen in 11.9 per cent of matches.

There are likely to be a combination of factors to explain this difference. Largely playing four-day rather than five-day matches, combined with women doing less damage to the pitch than men, may lead to less degradation of the surface and consequently, more uniform batting conditions throughout the match. The four-day time span combined with difficulty in taking wickets means women’s Tests only require a short disruption from the weather before draws become the most likely result.

Women’s Tests have also frequently had to make do with less-than-ideal surfaces in general. For example, the last two women’s Tests in England – at Taunton in 2019 and Bristol in 2021 – were both played

WHILE WOMEN’S TESTS HAVE TAKEN

A BACK SEAT TO THE ODI AND T20I FORMATS

IN THE ICC ERA, THE GROWTH IN WOMEN’S

CRICKET OVERALL IN THIS TIME HAS PARADOXICALLY GIVEN THE FEW

WOMEN’S TESTS THAT ARE PLAYED A HIGHER PROFILE

THAN THOSE IN THE PAST. THE UPSURGE

IN TV COVERAGE FOR LIMITED OVERS

MATCHES AND TOURNAMENTS HAS

BEEN ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS.


Left: India won both Tests they played in 2014, beating England and South Africa. © Special Arrangement

Bottom: India played red-ball cricket after a gap of seven years. © Special Arrangement

on used surfaces, a situation that would never be accepted for a men’s Test. Beyond this, there has been very little research into tailoring surfaces specifically for women’s Test cricket rather than men’s.

A simple lack of experience playing the format may also lead to more conservative play. In recent times, the few women given the opportunity to play Test cricket have generally gone two years between each match.

This lack of experience playing long-form cricket internationally is compounded by the complete absence of women’s multi-day cricket at domestic level. India, in 2018, were the last nation to moth-ball their multi-day domestic competition, while neither England nor Australia have played any women’s domestic First-Class cricket since the 1990s. Consequently, women’s Test cricketers are essentially limited-overs specialists being forced to learn the intricacies of

long-form cricket in their few matches at Test level.

The scale of the effect multi-day cricket could have on the development of players can be illustrated by Shafali Verma’s experience in Bristol this year. In her 29-match career for India, which began in September 2019, Verma’s sole Test appearance accounts for 42 per cent of all the deliveries she has faced in international cricket. Even just one long-form match a season would represent an enormous increase in match experience for domestic and international players alike, who are otherwise restricted to the confines of the limited overs game.

Another reason draws have been common in women’s Tests, has been the difficulty in taking wickets, which has been allied to a relatively low run-rate. Ideally, a team would bat once and bowl the opposition out twice to win the game. But scoring rates for much of the history of women’s Tests have

WOMEN’S TEST RESULTS BY TOTAL IN 1ST TEAM INNINGS

TOTAL WON MATCH LOST MATCH DRAWN

Sub 100 3 (15.0%) 11 (55.0%) 6 (30.0%)

100-149 3 (9.1%) 17 (51.5 %) 13 (39.4%)

150-199 8 (17.8%) 13 (28.9%) 24 (53.3%)

200-249 12 (19.4%) 6 (10.7%) 38 (67.9%)

250-299 11 (19.6%) 3 (5.4%) 42 (75.0%)

300-349 8 (21.6%) 1 (2.7%) 28 (75.7%)

350-399 2 (13.3%) 0 13 (86.7%)

400 PLUS 4 (25.0%) 0 12 (75.0%)

The combination of time pressure from four-day matches, and wickets falling at a relatively slow rate, means that declarations play more of a part in women’s Test cricket than men’s. 72.3 per cent of women’s Test matches (102 of 141) have featured at least one declared innings, compared with 47.1 per cent for men’s Tests in the same 1934-2021 period. During that time, 21.7 per cent of winning sides in men’s Tests have declared their 1st innings, compared with a figure of 49 per cent for women’s Tests.

The explosion in women’s limited overs run-rates since the mid-2010s in the nascent professional era may signal that teams now have the potential to

score a ‘bat once’ total at a rate that still leaves enough time to dismiss the opposition twice. The average losing side in women’s Tests bats for 174 overs.

The lack of Test matches, and some slow surfaces for the few that have been played in this time, makes it difficult to make a definitive statement in this regard. However, there have been tentative signs this might be the case. The run rate for women’s Tests since 2014 – a period which has featured just seven matches – has been 2.46 rpo. This may not seem revolutionary, but represents an increase in the average rate for the format, which has remained fairly static for several decades.

often meant that higher totals have simply taken too much time out of the game.

Teams that post in excess of 250 in the first innings – a score that has generally taken more than 100 overs to compile – rare-ly lose women’s Tests, and just one side has gone on to lose after posting 300 in their first innings. Australia, hold that dubious re-cord – having scored 302 against England they went on to lose the Test at Blackpool in 1937.


NUMBERS GAME

RUN RATES IN WOMEN’S TESTS THROUGH THE DECADES

DECADE M WON DRAW RPW RPO

1930s 7 5 2 20.5 2.18

1940s 5 3 2 20.07 1.95

1950s 12 4 8 20.44 1.95

1960s 17 4 13 26.02 2.07

1970s 24 8 16 23.19 2.00

1980s 21 4 17 29.41 2.19

1990s 24 7 17 30.74 2.13

2000s 22 11 11 25.49 2.22

2010s 8 5 3 26.88 2.33

2020s 1 0 1 35.96 3.00

Right: Pitches that bring the pacers into play generally produce results in women’s Tests. © Don Miles

Below: No country has a women’s First-Class competition which means the women are constantly learning on the job. © ECB/ Getty Images


The 2021 England v India Test at Bristol had the fourth highest run rate for any women’s Test (3.00 rpo) and the highest since 2003. The match also featured a record number of sixes (6). The Ashes Test at North Sydney Oval in 2017 was the first women’s Test to feature more than one six. Having played just one match in the format, Verma already has the most career sixes in women’s Test cricket (3), after her efforts at Bristol.

While women’s Tests have taken a back seat to the ODI and T20I formats in the ICC era, the growth in women’s cricket overall in this time has paradoxically given the few women’s Tests that are played a higher profile than those in the past. The upsurge in TV coverage for limited overs matches and tournaments

has been one of the main reasons.

The 2017 World Cup was the first Women’s World Cup to be televised in full, and was followed soon after by the first standalone edition of the Women’s T20 World Cup in 2018. By March 2020, a record TV audience and a crowd of over 86,000 in attendance at the MCG saw the 2020 T20 World Cup final.

The introduction of the multi-format Ashes in 2013, made what had become a neglected one-off Ashes Test part of a wider series narrative, and tied Test cricket to the higher profile, televised limited overs matches. By the 2015 edition, the Test would be televised in full, a first for a Women’s Ashes Test.

When India step out in Queensland in September 2021,

THE EXPLOSION IN WOMEN’S

LIMITED OVERS RUN-RATES SINCE

THE MID-2010S IN THE NASCENT

PROFESSIONAL ERA MAY SIGNAL THAT TEAMS NOW HAVE

THE POTENTIAL TO SCORE A ‘BAT ONCE’ TOTAL AT A RATE THAT STILL LEAVES ENOUGH TIME TO DISMISS THE OPPOSITION

TWICE.

as in Bristol in June, it will be in full view of TV cameras. Their two Test victories in 2014 were neither televised nor livestreamed.

The Queensland Test will see both India playing a Test match in Australia, and Australia playing a non-Ashes Test, for the first time since 2006. This will be the tenth meeting between Australia and India in this format. In the past, the contest has been dominated by the Southern Stars, particularly on home soil, where they have won four and drawn one of their five matches against India. Australia’s sole Test tour of India, saw a series of four drawn matches in 1984.

The only time India have avoided defeat in a Test on Australian soil, was thanks to an epic go-slow innings


NUMBERS GAME

by the legendary Sandhya Agarwal. Agarwal’s 51 runs off 398 balls in 452 minutes, remains the slowest half-century in Test history, and the longest women’s Test innings played in Australia.

Conditions at the venue, which Cricket Australia have made clear will feature a fresh pitch for the game, will unlikely be conducive to such an innings.

While draws are the most common results in women’s Test cricket overall, that isn’t the case for women’s Tests played in Australia. There have been 18 wins and 17 draws in the format in Australia; i.e., a W:D percentage of 51:49. Among nations to have hosted more than one women’s Test, Australia is the only one to have hosted more wins than draws.

WIN %AGE BY NATION

HOST NATION M W D WIN% RPW BPW RPO

AUSTRALIA 35 18 17 51.43 22.31 70.99 1.89

SOUTH AFRICA 8 3 5 37.5 25.37 76.63 1.99

NEW ZEALAND 19 7 12 36.84 26.33 78.75 2.01

ENGLAND 53 16 37 30.19 28.37 73.03 2.33

INDIA 20 4 16 20 24.96 68.91 2.14

WEST INDIES 2 0 2 0 27.08 78.35 2.07

THE QUEENSLAND TEST WILL SEE

BOTH INDIA PLAYING A

TEST MATCH IN AUSTRALIA,

AND AUSTRALIA PLAYING A NON-

ASHES TEST, FOR THE FIRST

TIME SINCE 2006. THIS

WILL BE THE TENTH MEETING

BETWEEN AUSTRALIA AND

INDIA IN THIS FORMAT.


Centuries, which in women’s Tests are often indicative of conditions that favour a draw (73.8 per cent of women’s Test centuries have been made in draws), are much less common in Australia. 20 centuries have been scored in 35 matches Down Under, compared to 50 hundreds in 53 matches on the slower surfaces of England.

While the pace-friendly conditions play a part in the results, so too do the opposition. Just six women’s Tests played in Australia have been won by the away side (17 per cent). Visiting batters have made seven centuries in Australia (one every seven

matches played), compared with 22 in England (one every 2.4 matches).

If this is to be the dawn of a new age in women’s Test cricket, it’s imperative that surfaces are prepared to give the players and the game the best chance to succeed, and that long form cricket is played beyond the international level.

As professionalism has been embraced at domestic level in Australia and latterly in England, women’s cricket is witnessing the first wave of players who will spend their whole career in a set-up that enables them to work full time on their skills, strength and conditioning. Australia’s

WOMEN’S TEST BOWLING IN AUSTRALIA SINCE 2000

BOWLING PACE SPIN

OVERS 1528 846.5

WKTS 163 51

AVE 17.56 33.78

ER 1.87 2.03

SR 56.2 56.2

BBI 7-51 5-30

BBM 11-107 5-50

5W 4 1

10W 1 0

Since the 1970s, the percentage has been 64/36 in favour of wins. The last time Australia were beaten in any Test match, was at Perth, during the 2013-14 Ashes, in a game in which seamers took 39 of

the 40 wickets to fall. Women’s Test wins are often characterised by surfaces that have given something to pace bowlers, and Australian conditions have generally been the most favourable in that regard.

Tayla Vlaeminck and Darcie Brown are already among the fastest recorded bowlers in women’s cricket, having both broken 125 kmph. In England, Isabelle Wong is not far behind. Perhaps they are the first in a generation of players who will make elements of women’s Test cricket less predictable.

John Leather lives in the UK and watches too much cricket. He tweets @_hypocaust.

Above: The lack of red-ball cricket in the women’s game means those who play the format are essentially white-ball specialists. © ECB/ Getty Images

Left: The introduction of the multi-format Ashes in 2013, made what had become a neglected one-off Ashes Test part of a wider series narrative. © ICC


ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS, WE STANDIt is widely believed that the acknowledgement of the past and those who came before, gives teams greater perspective and an understanding that they are part of something bigger than themselves.

• ANANYA UPENDR AN

BEYOND THE BOUNDARY


Y ou can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been.”

(Maya Angelou)In 1999, Katey Martin spent

a day in the New Zealand women’s cricket team dressing room. She was only 14, but had been called in because the team, which was playing at her home ground in Carisbrook, Dunedin, needed a player to “run the drinks”. Martin soaked in the special experience, watching the likes

of Katrina Keenan, Debbie Hockley, and Rebecca Rolls go about their business.

“I took so much from that experience,” the Kiwi ‘keeper told Women’s CricZone. “I listened to them talk about the absolute joy of playing for New Zealand – the sacrifices they had to make, and all they had overcome to play cricket for their country. That really stood out for me at that point of time – all the stories and the sheer passion for the game and the Fern.”

In the early 2000s, a teenaged

Below: Rodrigues penned a touching note after the Indian players were presented with their Test shirts ahead of the tour to England. © Special Arrangement

Snehal Pradhan sat in Pune’s Sunny Sports listening to former India skipper, and then Women’s Cricket Association of India Secretary, Shubhangi Kulkarni, tell tales of India’s early campaigns.

“I must have been 13 or 14 when I first met Shubbu di,” said the former India fast bowler. “I spent a lot of time in Sunny Sports, in Shubbu di’s shop, where she would sensitise me about the previous generations. Then, there was Amrita (Shinde) tai, who played a big role in the Maharashtra team when she returned in 2006. Both of them made us aware of the battles of the generations before ours and how it was different from the challenges we were facing.”

© IC

C


Top: “When you walk into an Australian team, you are expected to win,” says Lisa Sthalekar. © ICC

Right: Members of England’s 1973 World Cup winning squad. © ICC

A few years later, in March 2005, a 25-year-old Lisa Sthalekar was preparing to play in her maiden ODI World Cup. Having made her debut only two years earlier she had quickly become an integral part of a hugely successful team.

“When you walk into an Australian team, you are expected to win,” Sthalekar says. “There is no coming second.”

In addition to the physical preparation ahead of what was then the biggest tournament of her life, Sthalekar, and the 13 other members of the squad were given some “homework” for the tour.

“We were [each] given a former (Australia) World Cup player, and we had to ring them up, and have a conversation with them, and then present to the group when we got to South Africa,” explains former Australia batter-turned-broadcaster, Melanie Jones. “Those little bios were around the group, up on the dressing room walls, whenever we played a game. There were little nuggets on Sharon Tredrea, Raelee Thompson, Lyn Larsen and the likes… It was our little way of connecting to the past.”

Drawing inspiration from the champions on their walls,

Australia cantered to their fifth ODI World Cup title. It was a reaffirmation of their strength at the top level – a legacy carried forward.

Shift to May 2021: shortly before the Indian team left Mumbai for their tour of England, they had a special presentation ceremony. The players were shown a video on the history of Indian women’s cricket – “from where it started to where it has reached today” – listened to Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami speak about the legacy of the team, before they were presented with their Test jerseys for the tour. Many described the experience as

BEYOND THE BOUNDARY


“HISTORY CAN SHAPE YOU AS AN

INDIVIDUAL OR YOU AS A GROUP, POSITIVELY OR NEGATIVELY. SO, UNDERSTANDING

WHAT’S HAPPENED IN THE PAST, AND HOW A TEAM HAS

COME TO THIS POINT, WILL ALLOW YOU

TO CHANGE ITS PATH OR CONTINUE ON TO

ANOTHER LEVEL”

“emotional”, “special” and “overwhelming”.

Jemimah Rodrigues, India batter, concluded her touching social media post with these words: “Our greatest responsibility is to honour those who have been before us, and those who will come after; to leave the JERSEY in a better place.”

What connects these stories from different teams, across different continents, is the acknowledgement of those who came before – laying the foundation for all the good that has happened since – and the understanding of their place in history.

***There is a video of England’s

oldest living Test cricketer, Eileen Ash, Test cap no. 18, speaking to their current captain and cap no. 149, Heather Knight, uploaded by the ECB in 2018. Ash, who played seven Tests between 1937 and 1949, tells Knight of how much the game has changed over the years, and how lucky the current generation are to play as professionals.

“It’s a wonder we didn’t give up cricket in those days, with all the people saying all those


BEYOND THE BOUNDARY

“THIS IS A TIME WHERE THERE’S A ZEITGEIST AROUND

THIS CONCEPT OF RECOGNISING THE PREVIOUS

GENERATIONS. THERE IS AN OVERALL ENVIRONMENT,

ESPECIALLY IN OTHER

COUNTRIES, OF ACKNOWLEDGING…

THINKING ABOUT THE ANCESTORS AND

WHAT THEY WENT THROUGH. AND THE 20-YEAR-OLDS OF TODAY ARE PART OF THAT WORLD. THEY

ARE GOING TO GROW UP IN THAT WORLD. SO, I DON’T THINK IT WILL BE HARD

FOR THEM TO LEARN ABOUT, UNDERSTAND AND ACKNOWLEDGE

THEIR PREDECESSORS.”


horrible things about us,” Ash said. “But we stuck it out, and that’s why you are such happy cricketers now.”

“I remember all the players that played with me, and they’d all be thrilled to bits that it’s still going strong, and it’s getting bigger and better. It was worth all the groundwork that we did. But we didn’t even envision what it was going to turn out like for all of you. But it was worth it – worth paying and doing a job and playing cricket. It was worth it in the long run. You are all enjoying it, and you are all doing so well.”

Since the first official women’s Test match between

Australia and England in Brisbane in 1934, the game has undergone a remarkable transformation – both the pace at which it is played, and in terms of the audiences it attracts. Women’s cricket is now a widely followed sport, quickly growing in popularity around the world. Players have gone from needing to pay to play, to now holding contracts and earning a match fee. At the top level, it is also becoming less necessary to balance a full-time job with cricket.

As part of the generation that first reaped the rewards of those who came before, Sthalekar witnessed first-

Left: Former players from different countries gathered in the MCG for the 2020 T20 World Cup final. © ICC

Bottom: It is important that former players and boards help educate young cricketers about the past. © ICC

hand the work that went in to developing the women’s game. She believes that it is this knowledge that gives the Australian team a greater perspective – an understanding that they are part of something bigger than themselves.

“History can shape you as an individual or you as a group, positively or negatively. So, understanding what’s happened in the past, and how a team has come to this point, will allow you to change its path or continue on to another level,” says the ICC Hall of Famer.

“I think, given where the game currently is, and the


BEYOND THE BOUNDARY

number of opportunities [players have now], it is important to understand what people before you had to do to give you that opportunity. [It] makes you a little bit more appreciative of what people have sacrificed to allow you to do what you want to do, and do it as comfortably, freely and financially more secure.”

“By understanding where the game has come from, and to have that narrative and that community, you’re not just playing for yourself, there’s a big picture – you

The All Blacks are believed to be the most successful sporting team in the modern world. They have an aura around them; one that has been built over generations. As James Kerr wrote in his book ‘Legacy’, when opponents come up against the All Blacks, they face “a culture, an identity, a belief system – a collective passion and purpose beyond anything they have faced before”. It is a symbol of everything they represent.

Much like the All Blacks, the White Ferns also have their own symbol that serves as a reminder that they are not alone in their journey. “We have a New Zealand flag that every White Fern that is currently alive has signed, and that is put up in our change room,” Martin, who made her international debut back in 2003, explains. “It shows that connection that we want with the white fern, and with the legacy of the players that have gone before us. You know that you are just a small cog in a big mix.”

Top: Cap presentations are special moments where young players are made to realise they are part of something bigger than themselves. © ICC

Bottom: The involvement of former players in administrative or coaching roles is very important. © ICC

Right: “You are just a small cog in a big mix,” says Katey Martin. © ICC

are representing your state, your country, the history that has come before you. You are building on that legacy.”

***Before the start of every

game, the All Blacks – New Zealand’s men’s rugby team – do the haka, a ceremonial Māori dance, performed in a group to display a tribe’s pride, strength and unity. Many players, past and present, have spoken about how the haka helps them connect with themselves, their teammates, the land, and those who came before.


For the Australians, the symbol is the cap – Baggy Green or canary yellow – and every special presentation that comes with it. Before Covid, when the opportunity arose, past players were invited into the circle to “hand over the baton”.

“One of my most vivid memories is presenting Jess Jonassen with her Baggy Green cap,” says Jones, Australia’s Test cap no. 135. “Although I know JJ, and there isn’t a big gap [between our generations], it was a special moment. It’s an opportunity for the current players to realise they are part of a bigger cohort than just their squad. There are so many who paved the way.”

***As the world around

these women continues to change – becoming more demanding and critical than ever before – there is a strong belief that more needs to be done to keep the connection between generations alive.

“We are going to have a tough few years because I think we haven’t got a lot of players who still come through the amateur-professional era at the moment,” former England

skipper Charlotte Edwards told The Cricket Monthly. “I think it is a responsibility now for the players who are in the game, and ex-players like myself, to explain to the younger players the history of the game. Because all they know is that they get paid to play cricket. We have to keep everyone grounded.”

Pradhan believes that given the current awareness, the new generation of players, when provided with the information, will better understand and acknowledge their roots than was done before.

“This is a time where there’s a zeitgeist around this concept of recognising the previous generations. There is an overall environment, especially in other countries of acknowledging… thinking about the ancestors and what they went through. And the 20-year-olds of today are part of that world. They are going to grow up in that world. So, I don’t think it will be hard for them to learn about, understand and acknowledge their predecessors,” she argues.

However, she admits that the responsibility of educating young players falls on both the respective country

boards and the senior players within the teams. The key is to maintain a thread that connects each generation.

In 2017, Cricket Australia organised a programme that helped strengthen the bond between players of different generations. Ahead of the Women’s World Cup in England, Australia’s 1978, 1982, 1988, 1997 and 2005 World Cup-winning teams were presented with their winners’ medals at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane.

“It was actually one of the best things Cricket Australia has done to integrate the past and the current generation,” maintains Sthalekar. “They flew everyone up to Brisbane, and you arrived at the airport, and you had a chauffeur there with your name on a card. All of the older players were like ‘Wow, there was a name on my card and I got taken in a BMW or a Mercedes Benz’, and ‘Wow, this was so cool.’ It was all so exciting.”

“They never got anything in their careers,” chimes in Jones, who was part of the 1997 and 2005 squads. “They paid and paid and paid. And

“WE HAVE A NEW ZEALAND FLAG THAT EVERY WHITE FERN THAT IS CURRENTLY ALIVE HAS SIGNED, AND THAT IS PUT

UP IN OUR CHANGE ROOM. IT SHOWS THAT CONNECTION

THAT WE WANT WITH THE WHITE FERN, AND WITH

THE LEGACY OF THE PLAYERS THAT HAVE GONE BEFORE US.”


BEYOND THE BOUNDARY

here was this one night where they are getting flights paid for and accommodation, and so they rocked up and they were buzzing. They actually felt part of the current system, when they had [previously] been so far removed. It was about getting an acknowledgement, but it was also about making sure that the past players felt a big part of the recognition the Australian women’s team is getting now.”

Shortly after the function, a cohort of former players travelled over to England to follow the team’s campaign – something they have continued to do since then. Now, Jones says, they are making plans to head over New Zealand for the World Cup next year.

Outside these board arranged functions, Sthalekar and Martin agree that there also needs to be a drip-feed of information coming from the support staff and senior players within the team.

“I know, for Suzie (Bates) and I, we’ve definitely talked about ensuring that we can educate those (young) players about past players, and what they’ve done to get us into this

position,” says Martin. “It’s just having those conversations about where the game’s come, and the brilliant stories that we’ve had over the years.”

Efforts to involve past players in different roles, both full and part-time, could also help in this regard, insists Sthalekar. “Within the New South Wales setup, the way we do it, is that we have many former players who are normally heavily involved with the administration. So, having those players involved, means they are always going to ensure that the current generation get an understanding of what’s taken place before them.”

***In March 2020, Meg

Lanning’s all conquering Australian team drubbed India by 99 runs to clinch their fifth T20 World Cup title in front of a record 86,174-strong crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Jones was up in the commentary box calling the final moments of that historic win. Sthalekar, on the other hand, was perched outside the boundary, tears welling up in her eyes, as she watched it all unfold. There

were several other players among them – Margaret Jennings, Australia’s first World Cup-winning captain, Lyn Larsen, another former Australian skipper, and Belinda Clark, the world’s first ODI double centurion – each sharing in the joy of the squad as passionately.

It was another special day when those generations connected. A day that aura was further strengthened; when the achievement was as much about the past as if was of the present.

As Jones says, not everything in cricket is about skill, fitness and mental preparation. “If you want to do well, the success has a variety of different jigsaw pieces to it, and this (finding a connection to the past) is certainly an important one. We need to make sure we don’t lose that.”

After more than a decade plying her trade at the domestic level with Hyderabad, Sikkim and India A, Ananya Upendran has taken her love for the game into the world of writing, working as Managing Editor of Women’s CricZone. She tweets @a_upendran11.

“I KNOW, FOR SUZIE (BATES) AND I,

WE’VE DEFINITELY TALKED ABOUT

ENSURING THAT WE CAN EDUCATE THOSE

PLAYERS ABOUT PAST PLAYERS, AND WHAT THEY’VE DONE

TO GET US INTO THIS POSITION. IT’S JUST HAVING THOSE

CONVERSATIONS ABOUT WHERE THE

GAME’S COME, AND THE BRILLIANT STORIES WE’VE HAD OVER THE YEARS.”

Australia reaffirmed their dominance at

the top with a fifth T20 World Cup title. © ICC

www.fastandup.in


Top: Sri Lanka registered their maiden victories over England and India in the 2013 World Cup. © ICC

Right: Chamari Atapattu was part of the Supernovas squad in the Women’s T20 Challenge held in Sharjah last year. © BCCI

SRI LANKA’S DISAPPEARING ACTIn 2013, Sri Lanka beat England and India on their way to a historic fifth-place finish in the ODI World Cup. Since then, they have dropped off considerably, now languishing at the very back of the pack.

• ESTELLE VASUDEVAN

Women in dark blue uniforms are shoving each other

to get past the barriers on the boundary. They are sprinting on to the field of play, hollering. The batters seem to be engaged in a manic dance, circling each other. One is violently uppercutting the air. It is a chaotic celebration.

If you were just tuning in to the game, you would think Sri Lanka had won the World Cup. But wait, this isn’t the World Cup final… Didn’t this

tournament just begin? It may have been Sri Lanka’s first game of the tournament, but this win is special. That much is obvious.

Sri Lanka have mowed down defending champions England, defeating them for the very first time. This is, in the words of the Wisden Almanack, “the biggest upset in the history of the competition”.

Four days later, their fairy tale becomes even more epic. This time, neighbours India are on the receiving end, unceremoniously dumped out of the tournament they are hosting, in a 138-run

defeat. The Sri Lankans don’t even celebrate. First time beating India? Meh.

This high-water mark for women’s cricket in Sri Lanka was so good that after finishing fifth in the competition – their best ever performance at a global event – there was talk about a push for the title at the next edition of the World Cup, in 2017.

Eight years later, reality hasn’t quite measured up to those hopes.

At the time of writing, it’s been over 500 days since Sri

BEYOND THE BOUNDARY


Lanka played an international match. Barring Chamari Atapattu and Shashikala Siriwardene, who were part of the Women’s T20 Challenge in Sharjah in 2020, the national cricketers have played just one domestic Division I tournament in the last 16 months, where eight teams played seven games each.

Of course, we live in unprecedented times, the pandemic has superseded all other needs, so it’s understandable that the team would be playing fewer games, or there would be some difficulty organising tournaments. Yet, somehow, amidst rising Covid cases in the island, Sri Lanka Cricket has managed to host two two-match Test series, three ODIs, five T20Is and a five-team, 23-match Lanka Premier League tournament for the male cricketers, while playing 31 international fixtures in total during that same period; let’s not even go into the number of First-Class and List-A games played

by the men. This apathy towards

women’s cricket is nothing new, it’s just that now, the pandemic is being used as an excuse for it. In fact, even before Covid-19 hit, the average Division I boys’ schools played more matches in a year than the national women’s cricket team.

Things are arguably worse in domestic cricket, where the women would be lucky to play 15 games a year. With no age-group national team and a significantly limited school cricket structure in place, the feeder system to the national side is not the strongest.

It is an area that players have been trying to address with the administration for years.

“Across age groups, Indian players play about 1,200 domestic games per year in total. Sometimes, an Indian Under-19 player would have played more [domestic] games than I have in my whole career. So, that player is extremely mature when she comes up to international cricket.

But for our players to mature, they learn the finer points of the game after getting into the national team and playing for a couple of years. By the time they reach that maturity, they are 29-30 years old. This is something we have been talking about and asking for, for many years,” recently retired former skipper Siriwardene told Women’s CricZone when asked about Sri Lanka’s struggles to keep pace with teams at the international level.

It’s kind of insane when you think about it. Sri Lanka had this magical, fairy tale World Cup campaign in 2013, following which, they could have kicked on to become serious contenders in the 2010s and beyond. They certainly had the talent – the likes of Atapattu, Eshani Lokusooriya, Yasoda Mendis and Deepika Rasangika shot into global consciousness at that World Cup, while Siriwardene and Chamani Seneviratne had already made a name for themselves. They weren’t necessarily an ‘old’ team – with an average age around 27 – so they had a few years left in them to really make a mark. At the time, they also seemed to have a coach who understood how to help the team make best use of their limited resources.

Yet, in the eight years that followed that campaign, Sri Lanka have won only seven ODIs. In total. That’s seven wins in 63 games. Their T20I record is slightly better, but 18 wins in 74 matches is nothing to write home about.

In stark contrast, the teams Sri Lanka beat in that World Cup have gone in the opposite direction. England won the next ODI World Cup and reached two semis and two finals in the T20 World Cups that followed. India got to two finals and a semi, while South Africa have reached three semis in the five global tournaments since 2013. Sri Lanka, on the other hand,

BARRING CHAMARI

ATAPATTU AND SHASHIKALA

SIRIWARDENE, WHO WERE PART OF THE WOMEN’S T20 CHALLENGE

IN 2020, THE NATIONAL

CRICKETERS HAVE PLAYED

ONE DOMESTIC DIVISION I

TOURNAMENT IN THE LAST 16

MONTHS.


BEYOND THE BOUNDARY

have failed to make it past the first round on all five occasions.

Something that worked in Sri Lanka’s favour from 2010-2013, was having a settled leadership group. Keeping coach Harsha de Silva and skipper Siriwardene together through those years helped them build an experienced and formidable team. The pair were most suited to working together, with their leadership styles complementing each other. Siriwardene describes de Silva as the “best

coach” she has worked under and credits him for her growth as a leader too.

“In terms of man-management, he’s the best coach I have seen. Though we had fewer players then than we do now, he knew how to utilise each one’s skills and help them understand their roles. He taught me a lot about how to lead,” she said.

However, in the years that followed, that continuity in leadership was not afforded to

the Sri Lankan team. Six coaches and four captains have taken the reins over a number of stints since 2013, with little success.

Perhaps the biggest blow to Sri Lanka’s progress immediately after the World Cup was, in the words of Sri Lanka Cricket’s investigator, the “unsatisfactory situation that prevailed in the selection and other aspects relating to women’s cricket and widely prevalent perceptions of favouritism and bias” – i.e.,

accusations that players were forced to perform sexual favours to keep their places in the team.

The investigation of the allegations saw three officials’ contracts terminated over incidents that had occurred in 2013 and 2014. No charges were brought against them, with SLC stating that “there were no grounds to justify criminal proceedings”.

The period was undoubtably tumultuous, so much so that even now, years later, you


“IN TERMS OF MAN-

MANAGEMENT, HE’S THE BEST COACH I HAVE SEEN. THOUGH WE HAD FEWER PLAYERS THEN THAN WE DO

NOW, HE KNEW HOW TO UTILISE

EACH ONE’S SKILLS AND HELP THEM

UNDERSTAND THEIR ROLES. HE TAUGHT ME A LOT ABOUT HOW TO

LEAD.”

Top: Under Shashikala Siriwardene, Sri Lanka put together a formidable unit in the early 2010s. © SLC

Right: It has been over 500 days since Sri Lanka last played international cricket. © ICC

would be lucky to find anyone who was directly involved with the team at the time, willing to talk about it. Unfortunately, it spelled the end for some players, as the constant uncertainty surrounding their places left many demoralized and unsure of their future in the sport.

Sri Lanka could never find stability from 2015 onwards either, as the chopping and changing in search of overnight success continued. Players like Lokusooriya, who was the star

of Sri Lanka’s 2013 campaign, gradually faded away, as SLC failed to provide an environment where a player of her nature could thrive.

Sri Lanka won just one game at the Women’s T20 World Cup in 2020; so, the lack of games over the last 16 months, is a blow they can ill afford. The cost to players’ individual growth, cannot be quantified, with Atapattu’s situation particularly poignant, as she has now lost a year and a half of her career while at her peak; time that she will not get back.

But with the ODI World Cup qualifiers looming, Sri Lanka cannot allow themselves to dwell on what could have been. They will have to find a way through the qualifiers, and they may even have to do it without having played any international cricket leading up to the tournament that is scheduled to be held in Zimbabwe later this year. Even if they can get some matches in, the tournament is not going to be easy, with Pakistan, West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland, Thailand, Zimbabwe, Papua New Guinea, USA, and the Netherlands all competing with them for three spots in the main draw.

In June 2021, training resumed in batches at the women’s cricket centre at the P Sara Oval. In late July, the


BEYOND THE BOUNDARY

“FOR OUR PLAYERS TO

MATURE, THEY NEED TO LEARN

THE FINER POINTS OF THE GAME AFTER

GETTING INTO THE NATIONAL TEAM AND PLAYING

FOR A COUPLE OF YEARS. BY THE

TIME THEY REACH THAT MATURITY, THEY ARE 29-30 YEARS OLD. THIS IS SOMETHING WE HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT

AND ASKING FOR, FOR MANY

YEARS.”

Top: Sri Lanka’s national and emerging squads began training in June 2021. © ICC

Below: Kavisha Dilhari is one of the talents to have emerged through SLC’s drive to get more school girls playing cricket. © ICC

national and emerging squads went into a bio-bubble full squad training environment in Dambulla. The players train in the hope that SLC can put together some fixtures in the coming months.

“It’s not easy to organize tours now, but we can’t say that it’s not easy and let it go, because that will only mean that we fall behind even more. I am certainly a bit worried about the lack

of games, but that’s not in my control. The board is trying hard to get something going before the qualifiers, hopefully that works out,” Atapattu said.

The Sri Lankan captain is perhaps being too kind, as one look at the schedules of the national men’s and women’s teams makes it clear that SLC have not been working hard enough so far, to get some fixtures in.

However, there have been tiny, almost imperceptible signs that the administration is finally ready to give Sri Lanka’s women what they need to succeed at the highest level. One of them was setting up a cricket centre for the women at the P Sara Oval, where the players have a swimming pool, centre wickets, side nets, and indoor nets at their disposal. Previously, they trained alongside the men at the High-Performance Center at the R Premadasa Stadium.

Hashan Tillakaratne’s appointment as head coach is also seen as a step in the right direction. Tillakaratne, a former Sri Lanka men’s captain, does not have any prior experience coaching women’s teams,


Top: Having finished last in the ICC Women’s ODI Championship, Sri Lanka have to compete in the global qualifiers to book a place in the 2022 World Cup. © ICC

Bottom: Presumably at the peak of her powers, Chamari Atapattu has lost more than a year and a half of her international career. © ICC

“IT’S NOT EASY TO ORGANIZE

TOURS NOW, BUT WE CAN’T SAY THAT IT’S NOT EASY AND LET

IT GO, BECAUSE THAT WILL ONLY MEAN THAT WE FALL BEHIND EVEN MORE. I AM CERTAINLY A BIT WORRIED

ABOUT THE LACK OF GAMES, BUT

THAT’S NOT IN MY CONTROL.”

against the tide. Sri Lanka were already falling behind the top teams and this ‘break’ from international cricket has only widened that gap. Now, they have teams like Bangladesh and Thailand nipping at their heels, and unless something changes fast, they may just find themselves out of the World Cup.

A self-professed sports nut, Estelle Vasudevan is a writer at ThePapare.com, based in Colombo. She tweets @estelle_vasude1.

but is the most high-profile appointment for the post of women’s head coach.

Another, and possibly more important step, has been the drive to get more girls’ schools playing hard-ball cricket. According to the Convener of Women’s Cricket, Apsari Tillakaratne, SLC have invested in approaching rural schools and providing necessary equipment and training to players at the provincial level.

This, at least, is a step that seems to be working, with a number of impressive young women like Kavisha Dilhari, Harshitha Madavi and Umesha Thimashini coming through the ranks in the past three years.

This has also coincided with an increased interest among girls in taking up the sport, according to Siriwardene, who runs a cricket academy in Colombo, with more women’s games on television and the likes of Atapattu showing that pursuing cricket as a career is very much an achievable goal.

However, despite the ray of hope in the distance, reality suggests that Atapattu and her charges are currently fighting


IN THE FRAME


IN THE FRAMEIN THE FRAME


Kenya romped to a 7-wicket win over Namibia in the final of the 2021 Kwibuka Women’s T20 tournament in Rwanda sealing their fourth title. Sarah Wetoto led their charge with the ball taking 17 wickets, including 6/16 in the final. Namibia’s Sune Wittmann topped the run charts with 167 runs. The tournament was streamed live on Women’s CricZone’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. © Special Arrangement

Ireland beat Scotland, 3-1, and Netherlands, 2-1, in T20I series at home

ahead of the T20 World Cup European Qualifiers. Gaby Lewis and Orla

Prendergast put in stunning performances throughout. © Cricket Ireland

West Indies enjoyed a successful home

series against Pakistan with

Hayley Matthews, Stafanie Taylor and Anisa Mohammed making important

contributions. © PCB/ ICC

The Australian

juggernaut rolled

on, demolishing

New Zealand in New

Zealand to continue

their unbeaten run

in ODIs. © ICC

Tammy Beaumont

backed up a good

series against

New Zealand with

more runs against

India. © ICC

IN THE FRAME

South Africa recorded a historic double series win in India,

defeating the hosts 4-1 in the ODI and 2-1 in the T20I

series in Lucknow. Youngsters Lara Goodall and Anneke

Bosch were their standout performers, well supported by

the calming presence of seniors Marizanne Kapp, Mignon

du Preez and Shabnim Ismail. © Cricket South Africa

Although Pakistan didn’t win either

series against South Africa or West Indies,

they showed consistent improvement

through the year, with Diana Baig,

Fatima Sana and Ayesha Naseem

putting in stellar performances. © ICC


OPINION

As the women’s game continues to become more professional, it is clear that there is a need for the voices of female cricketers to be heard when critical decisions about their lives are being made.

• R AF NICHOL SON

ADVOCATING FOR AN EQUAL VOICE: THE IMPORTANCE OF PLAYERS’ ASSOCIATIONS

L isa Sthalekar still remembers her earliest meeting with the Australian Cricketers’

Association. “It would have been around 2006,” she tells Women’s CricZone. “We became associate members to start with, because the constitution for the players association said it was for males only. At the meeting, we were talking about how to

keep growing our membership, and I said, ‘Well, you could probably open it up to past female players’, and a couple of board members were like, ‘What, they’re not allowed to be on it!’”

“None of the male members of ACA were aware of what conditions were in the women’s programme,” Sthalekar adds. “We still weren’t getting the same amount of games,

clothes that we were given were the hand-me-downs of the guys’ stuff and were massive on us. So, us joining the ACA was an education.”

Like many cricketing institutions, players’ associations have only recently woken up to the existence of women’s cricket - despite the fact that the first such body, the English Professional Cricketers Association (PCA),


ADVOCATING FOR AN EQUAL VOICE: THE IMPORTANCE OF PLAYERS’ ASSOCIATIONS

“AS PLAYERS, I THINK WE ARE A LOT MORE

WILLING TO ASK FOR THINGS AND

SAY WHEN THINGS AREN’T QUITE

RIGHT OR AREN’T QUITE EQUAL. I THINK THE PCA HAVE BEEN A

HUGE PART OF THAT. THEY CAN REALLY HELP

THE PLAYERS IN TERMS OF HAVING THOSE DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS THAT SOMETIMES

NEED TO BE HAD WITH

THE ECB. I’VE BECOME MORE COMFORTABLE BEING VOCAL.”

© I

CC


OPINION

allow women to become full members for the first time.

Times have changed rapidly. Six years after admitting female members, in August 2017, the ACA were at the forefront of negotiating a historic new pay deal for Australian cricketers — men and women. “We did a huge education piece, for the male members of ACA, on how much it costs state players to play the game,” recalls Sthalekar, who in 2011 became the first woman to be appointed

to the ACA Executive. “None of them were aware.”

“By 2017 the women’s game was exploding and if we were to keep that up, the male players were also conscious of the fact that the female players needed to be better looked after. The guys saw that we needed to look after not only the male domestic players but also the female domestic players.”

Thanks to the ACA sticking to their guns across an acrimonious 10-month

Above: After an acrimonious 10-month negotiation, Australia’s women were included in the board’s revenue sharing model in 2017. © ICC

© I

CC

“THE PLAYERS ARE ALWAYS

GOING TO BE IN A STRONGER

POSITION WHEN THEY’RE ALL

TOGETHER, MEN AND WOMEN PLAYERS –

HISTORY SHOWS THAT THAT’S THE CASE. SECONDLY,

THEY’VE ALL GOT A RIGHT TO

REPRESENTATION AND WE WANT

BOTH THE MEN’S AND WOMEN’S GAMES TO BE SUCCESSFUL

AND BOTH GROUPS TO BE PROTECTED.”

was formed in 1967. Set up by former England fast bowler Fred Rumsey, the aim was to give players a voice in the administration of the sport: effectively, it became a trade union for professional cricketers, past and present. But it would take almost 50 years, until 2011 in fact, for the first women to become members of the PCA – the same year that the ACA (which had formed in 1997) formally changed its constitution to


negotiation process, the agreement finally reached with Cricket Australia included women in the revenue-sharing model for the first time. Total female player payments increased from AUS $7.5 million to $55.2 million, while the minimum retainer for domestic female players increased from AUS $18,000 to $35,951.

It’s a model of what can be achieved through players’ associations, when they – and their predominantly male

memberships – fully embrace their responsibilities towards the women’s game. “The men and women have been rewarded for sticking together,” was the verdict of then ACA President Greg Dyer on the new pay deal.

FICA, the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations, is the umbrella body which provides support for players’ associations; they currently represent nine member associations, based in

Australia, Bangladesh, England, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa and West Indies. All of these, bar the Cricketers Welfare Association of Bangladesh, now represent women cricketers as well as their male counterparts.

It’s a no-brainer for the men and women to work together, according to FICA CEO Tom Moffat. “The players are always going to be in a stronger position when they’re all together, men and women

players – history shows that that’s the case. Secondly, they’ve all got a right to representation and we want both the men’s and women’s games to be successful and both groups to be protected. That’s absolutely key in any new associations that are being established, and the older ones as well.”

FICA itself did not commence representation of female cricketers until 2015, but now has a specific women’s Player Advisory


OPINION

Group, comprised of current senior international players nominated by their home players association, with Sthalekar and Ireland’s Cecilia Joyce on their Board.

As the women’s game has slowly professionalised over the last decade, so players’ associations in cricket-playing countries around the world have followed the ACA’s example in pushing for more equitable remuneration for female players. Initial success

came in England, where the PCA’s efforts behind the scenes to push for better remuneration for its female members resulted in the ECB introducing the first ever professional contracts for any female cricketers anywhere in the world in May 2014. Boards around the world swiftly followed suit, and players’ associations have continued to push for increased professionalisation. In South Africa, a four-year MOU agreement between

Cricket South Africa and the South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) in 2018 doubled the women’s retainer pool, while in New Zealand a new Women’s Master Agreement, negotiated between New Zealand Cricket and the NZCPA in 2019, introduced 54 domestic women’s contracts alongside the existing national professional team.

Most recently, in 2019, the Irish Cricketers’ Association – which had only formed

two years earlier – negotiated Ireland’s first ever contracts for women: six part-time retainer contracts, a significant step on the path to the professionalisation of women’s cricket in Ireland.

It’s not all about negotiating pay increases, though – as Isa Guha, who in 2011 became the first woman to sit on the Board of the English PCA, is keen to stress. “Equity in women’s cricket is not just about the money,” she says. “It’s around


“TRADITIONALLY IN THE PAST, CERTAINLY

WHEN I PLAYED, THE WOMEN FELT LIKE WE HAD TO

BE GRATEFUL FOR EVERYTHING,

RATHER THAN STRIVE FOR

MORE. I THINK THAT’S MAYBE A STEREOTYPICAL

GENERAL FEMALE TRAIT, THAT WE

HAVE TO BE GRATEFUL, BUT ACTUALLY THE PLAYERS ARE

RECOGNISING THAT THEY CAN ASK FOR

MORE NOW, AND TO BE ABLE TO

FACILITATE THAT THROUGH THE PCA

IS GREAT.”

different sorts of provisions that can basically make the girls feel like they are second-class citizens, and trying to push for change so that it’s equal across the board.”

“Traditionally in the past, certainly when I played, the women felt like we had to be grateful for everything, rather than strive for more. I think that’s, maybe, a stereotypical general female trait, that we have to be grateful, but actually the players are recognising that they can ask for more now, and to be able to facilitate that through the PCA is great.”

Examples can be found in the PCA’s support for the England players in requesting a change from one to two-year rolling contracts (and therefore added job security), as well as negotiating a substantial pay increase in 2018. In 2017, the England Women’s Player Partnership (EWPP) was formed, with its own Players Committee consisting of captain Heather Knight and three other players, to sit alongside the pre-existing men’s committee. “The women have the exact same power as the men do,” PCA

Chair James Harris says.“As players I think we’re

a lot more willing to ask for things, and say when things aren’t quite right or they aren’t quite equal,” Knight said during a recent podcast. “I think the PCA have been a huge part of that. They can really help the players in terms of having those difficult conversations that sometimes need to be had with the ECB. I’ve become more comfortable being vocal.”

Moffat concurs with Knight. “In general, we know that players are in a better position, both in terms of having a voice in the game, and in the terms and conditions of their employment, when they are collectively represented,” he says. “In most of the FICA member countries the players’ association has been able to secure and agree with the governing body key aspects of player employment. These include, for example, player contract standards, remuneration and share of revenue, terms and conditions such as travel and accommodation

Above: India is one of the most notable absentees from FICA’s roster. © ICC

Right: Female players are less afraid to voice their opinions and make their demands known to the board. © ICC


Above: In 2019, New Zealand Cricket introduced a historic ‘Women’s Master Agreement’. © ICC

Top Right: An Indian PCA would also, no doubt, be at the forefront of advocating for a full women’s IPL. © BCCI

Bottom Right: Georgia Adams was one of the 41 domestic players to receive a professional contract late last year. © Don Miles

minimum standards, and insurance cover.”

One example which affects female cricketers in particular has been the successful, and hard-fought, negotiation of pregnancy policies in countries like Australia and New Zealand. Amy Satterthwaite has already benefitted from this, being entitled to full pay and retaining her contract with New Zealand Cricket during the 12 months she spent away from cricket on maternity leave in 2019-20.

“There are also numerous world-class support programs run by the players’ associations,” adds Moffat. “These include player welfare and personal development programs,

including mental health and other support services. They also include education assistance, grants and transition programs to help players prepare for life as a professional cricketer and transition out of the game and into a new career.”

Not all women are so lucky, of course: there remain notable absences from the roster of FICA members – most significantly, India. Technically, a players’ association does exist there, but membership is not open to current players and as such it is not recognised by FICA. One can only imagine what it might mean for female players in the world’s biggest cricketing powerhouse were a

genuine, independent players’ association to be established there: for a start, it seems unlikely that the BCCI could ever again get away with withholding player prize money for 14 months. An Indian PCA would also, no doubt, be at the forefront of advocating for a full women’s IPL.

Thinking globally, FICA’s latest Women’s Professional Cricket Global Employment Report, which surveyed 117 players around the world, suggested that 66 per cent of players still feel insecure in their cricket employment, and 54 per cent do not think players in their country have a clear say on player issues, while 25 per cent have felt bullied or intimidated

OPINION


“WHERE THE ENVIRONMENT

IS NOT YET PROFESSIONAL, WHICH IS STILL MOST CRICKET

PLAYING COUNTRIES IN THE WOMEN’S

GAME, ENSURING THE PLAYERS ARE COLLECTIVELY

REPRESENTED IS A KEY PART OF

EXPEDITING THE PROFESSIONA-

LISATION OF THE GAME AND

ACHIEVING PROGRESS IN A TRANSPARENT AND WIN-WIN

WAY.”

by their board. The survey was conducted prior to Covid; the likelihood is that the neglect of women’s cricket by some boards during the pandemic will only have increased these feelings of powerlessness. There can be no better time for players to “get organised”.

Moffat agrees. “Where the environment is not yet professional, which is still most cricket playing countries in the women’s game, ensuring the players are collectively represented is a key part of expediting the professionalisation of the game and achieving progress in a transparent and win-win way,” he says. “Players in cricket and other sports continue to gain an understanding that there are decisions being made daily about the game and their livelihoods that impact them, and they need to have a voice and be professionally represented in those discussions.”

Crucially, one of FICA’s roles is to advocate for the formation of further players’ associations around the world. “In lots of


OPINION

cricket-playing countries there are genuine systemic barriers to players forming and joining players’ associations,” Moffat says. “Forming a players association is a fundamental right that players have. It’s not for governing bodies to choose if they want one, or if they want to accept engaging with one meaningfully – under international law, the right to freedom of association is protected, and similarly, the core labour conventions of the International Labour Organisation protect the right to organise and the right to collectively bargain with your employer.”

“As the game’s global governing body, the ICC has an obligation to ensure that it, and its members, respect and protect these

rights better. We have made the ICC aware of many of these issues, they possess the leverage to address them and to prioritise respecting people and their rights by creating a safer space for players to speak up and form and join players’ associations. We will be continuing to advocate for that.”

It should be stressed that even in countries where players’ associations already exist, there is more work to be done. A big problem in all countries, bar Australia, remains the absence of amateur domestic female players from representation at the table. This is something of a chicken-and-egg situation: domestic players are not entitled to become members of associations designed for professional

“FORMING A PLAYERS

ASSOCIATION IS A FUNDAMENTAL

RIGHT THAT PLAYERS HAVE. IT’S NOT FOR GOVERNING BODIES TO

CHOOSE IF THEY WANT ONE, OR IF THEY WANT

TO ACCEPT ENGAGING WITH ONE

MEANINGFULLY. UNDER

INTERNATIONAL LAW, THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION IS PROTECTED, AND SIMILARLY, THE CORE LABOUR CONVENTIONS

OF THE INTERNATIONAL

LABOUR ORGANISATION PROTECT THE

RIGHT TO ORGANISE AND THE RIGHT TO COLLECTIVELY

BARGAIN WITH YOUR EMPLOYER.”

Above: In 2014, England became the first women’s team to become professional. © ICC

Top Right: Australia’s players are wonderfully backed by the ACA. © ICC

Bottom Right: Amy Satterthwaite was the first female cricketer to benefit from NZC’s pregnancy policies – retaining her contract for the 2019-20 season. © ICC


existing male members with new female members who are demanding a bigger bite of the cherry. There continues, for example, to be a significant pay gap in every country between male and female professional cricketers, and a marked hesitancy on behalf of any players’ association to declare a commitment to equal pay for men and women – even in Australia, where the next MOU between the ACA and Cricket Australia will be negotiated ahead of the 2022-23 season.

Above all else, though, it’s clear that there is a need for the voices of female cricketers to be heard when critical decisions about their lives are being made. “A situation where the players are working in genuine partnership with the governing body to grow the game, rather than being treated as a means of production or a tick box exercise, will always lead to better outcomes for players and the game,” says Moffat. A players’ association has a crucial role to play in that.

Raf Nicholson is a women’s cricket writer and historian, and the author of ‘Ladies and Lords: A History of Women’s Cricket in Britain’. She is the editor of women’s cricket website www.crickether.com. She tweets @RafNicholson.

cricketers until they become professional themselves; but without anyone to advocate for them, how can they push for remuneration?

England’s experience can perhaps offer some pointers. In December 2020, the female PCA membership expanded to include domestic cricketers for the very first time as 41 players from across the eight new regional centres were inducted into the PCA.

“Being able to introduce those 41 domestic professional contracts was a huge body of work by the PCA, in partnership with the ECB,” says Guha. With only five contracted professionals in each regional side, there remains a large group of players who are still “on the outside”. However, Harris says that the PCA will continue to lobby the ECB for an extension of the number of contracts on offer, and for increased levels of pay.

“This is a great start, but we need to have a female game that is supported wholly by full-time professionals underneath the England team. At the moment, all the female domestic players are being paid the same [£18,000] – that’s been a directive from the ECB and not under our control. From a PCA point of view, what we want to lobby for in the next few years is to be able to create a market, like we have in the men’s game currently, whereby players can negotiate a contract that has a certain value, with certain terms. I really think in the next few years, that’s something we can achieve.”

Excitingly, Guha says that the plan is to work towards a minimum wage for women’s cricketers, similar to the one that has existed in English men’s cricket since 2019.

Perhaps the next big challenge for cricketers’ associations, given limited resources, will be how to balance the needs of their

http://www.crickether.com


• S . SUDARSHANAN

BEHIND THE STUMPS: TRACKING THE WICKET-KEEPING TRANSFORMATION

If you happen to look up ‘Sarah Taylor’ in the cricketing dictionary, you will find words ranging from ‘freak’ to ‘maverick’

used to describe her talents and her accomplishments with the bat and gloves.

Wicket-keepers are like roads – you only notice them when they cause trouble. But on most occasions, they fade into the background, their tidy work with the gloves largely unnoticed. With cricket’s formats getting shorter and quicker, there is an increasing demand for multi-faceted players, and batting is generally a prerequisite. As a result, ‘specialist’ wicket-keepers are slowly fading away, making room for tonkers who can hold their own behind the stumps in white ball cricket. This would probably explain why Taniya Bhatia was recently left out of India’s T20I XI – she is superb with the gloves, but unfortunately, batting is her secondary skill. However, wicket-keepers still play a key role in the game, and whether ‘specialists’ or not, they are

expected to perform to a certain standard.

In recent years, the women’s game has been witness to the skill and genius of the likes of Taylor, Bhatia, Amy Jones and Alyssa Healy – all of whom have been central figures in their teams’ success. While Bhatia and Jones are quintessential ‘keepers of the modern era, Taylor and Healy have been involved in the game for over a decade now and have often been at the forefront of change. The effect of white ball cricket on the techniques, skillset and approach of batters and bowlers is rather obvious, but the shorter formats have also forced wicket-keepers to add more strings to their bow.

TO SQUAT OR NOT?One of the basics that any wicket-keeper is trained to do is the squatting position at the start – gloves on the ground, squat with your weight on the balls of your feet; the aim being to rise with the bounce of the ball. However, over the years, the traditional squat has become obsolete, especially in

The effect of white ball cricket on the techniques, skillset and approach of batters and bowlers is rather obvious, but the shorter formats have also forced wicket-keepers to add more strings to their bow.

PERSPECTIVE


Much like the batters and bowlers, wicket-keepers have also had to up their skills and tactics in white ball formats. © ICC


Top: Amy Jones is one of the best ‘keepers in the modern game. © ICC

Left: Specialist ‘keepers are becoming rarer in the modern era; batting is a prerequisite. © Cricket Ireland

Right: Sarah Taylor was a master of the leg-side stumping. © ICC

conditions where the ball carries through nicely to the ‘keeper.

When Taylor made the switch from traditional squat to a more unconventional half squat, her mantra was: “Bum up, bum up”. It allowed her to better rise with the hip while still keeping her hands on the ground.

“As soon as the bowler was about to release the ball, my bum would go first but my hands were still on the ground,” Taylor explains to Women’s CricZone. “The bum coming up is the most important thing and the hands would then go rather than it all going up in one movement. That would be my method of doing it. As a basic rule, we were saying, ‘Bum up, bum up! Don’t be lazy! Bum up!’”

Julia Price, who played for Australia between 1996 and 2005, also concurs, “After a while, I got a bit tired of squatting, particularly back to the quicks. I didn’t see the point of it. I probably bent the rules a little bit in the fact that I stepped into my ‘keeping and just touched the ground with the gloves to make sure that I was still coming up with the ball and the bounce, but without the extra strain on the legs. Particularly keeping up to the stumps, you don’t need to squat anymore, which makes sense to me.”

PERSPECTIVE

“THE OLD METHODS OF SQUATTING IN ASIAN

COUNTRIES IS GOOD, BECAUSE THE BALL WILL

NOT KICK ABOVE THE HIP. BUT ONCE YOU GO

TO ENGLAND OR AUSTRALIAN PITCHES, IT

IS THE HALF-SQUAT OR GLOVE TOUCHING THE GROUND, THAT IS ENOUGH.”


Karuna Jain, who donned the gloves for India between 2005 and 2014, believes that the full squat helps in Asian conditions, since there is a tendency for the ball to stay low.

“The old methods of squatting in Asian countries is good, because the ball will not kick above the hip. But once you go to England or Australian pitches, it is the half-squat or glove touching the ground, that is enough,” Jain explains.

“In a squat position there are two things – getting up from the hips and getting up from the shoulder. If you’re getting up from the shoulder, you go vertically up, your gloves will not touch the ground. Whereas if you are getting up from your glute or your back, even if you get up, the gloves are touching the ground. This is very important especially standing up to the stumps for pacers.”

STAND UP TO BE COUNTED!One of the developments in the sport due to the shorter formats has been wicket-keepers readily standing up to the stumps to

the seamers. Bhatia often keeps up to the stumps to Jhulan Goswami – something rare, say, five to seven years ago – as well as Shikha Pandey. Jones has been doing so to Katherine Brunt and Anya Shrubsole, too; often, even to the new ball.

“It’s pretty vital to make sure that you are a very good ‘keeper up to the stumps because you’re up to the stumps 80 per cent of time in a T20 game,” says Price, “while it’s slightly different in the 50-overs format where you have got a little more patience.”

In fact, over 40 per cent of Taylor’s stumpings in limited overs internationals are to seam bowlers. It isn’t a surprise considering she is believed to be the ‘gold-standard’ in wicket-keeping. You’d imagine that a huge chunk of those – there isn’t enough data to measure this accurately – would be through leg-side collections, something she has mastered over time. It is something that has also become a more common mode of dismissal than it was

previously in LOIs.Most of Taylor’s stumpings

are you-blink-and-you-miss affairs. Ask Eva Gray in The Hundred. Or Dane van Niekerk and Trisha Chetty. Or Ellyse Perry or Mithali Raj. Many batters have been victims of Taylor’s nifty glovework behind the stumps. And the former England wicketkeeper-batter credits former India men’s stumper MS Dhoni for her evolution over the last seven years or so.

WEIGHT AND WATCHDhoni has been a bashing-away-traditional-methods kind of player ever since he broke into the national team. In terms of wicket-keeping, the speed of his stumpings have been compared to the speed of light, thanks to his swift glove-work. He seldom collects the ball in a traditional manner – where the ‘keeper takes the gloves back after collecting the ball – standing up to the stumps. In fact, contrary to the purists’ theory of ‘letting the ball come to you’, Dhoni moves his gloves towards the

“FOR ME, WHAT DHONI DOES

REALLY WELL IS, HE SPOTS THE

LINE OF THE BALL AND WITHIN A

SPLIT SECOND, HE PUTS HIS HANDS WHERE THE BALL IS GOING TO BE AND HIS BODY WEIGHT HAS

ALREADY GONE TO THE STUMPS AND THEN IT’S A SIMPLE CASE OF WHIPPING [OFF]

THE BAILS. I WATCHED LOADS OF FOOTAGE ON DHONI AND HIS MOVEMENTS

AND IF YOU ADD THE TIMING OF

ME MOVING PRETTY LATE AND

THAT BOUNCE POSITION, PLUS

THE BODY WEIGHT GOING TOWARDS

THE STUMPS OR DOWN LEG

SIDE THERE IS A DEFINITE RAISE IN

MY CAREER.”


PERSPECTIVE

“IT’S ABOUT TRUSTING

YOUR HANDS. THE HANDS

ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT THING ABSOLUTELY. THE BODY YOU CAN

TRAIN WHERE TO GO ESSENTIALLY.

BUT IF YOUR HANDS ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH,

IT’S COMPLETELY POINTLESS.”


catching on the move to force her hands forward, rather than wait to receive the ball.

What the technique followed by Dhoni and Taylor means – something that is emulated to an extent by Bhatia and Jones – is that good wicket-keepers need to have good hands. Despite the weight of the body playing a role, it is the speed of hands that helps the wicket-keepers react quickly to the ball and catch or stump the batter out.

“It’s about trusting your hands. The hands are the most important thing absolutely,” reckons Taylor. “The body you can train where to go essentially. But if your hands are not good enough, it’s completely pointless.”

NOT A PAD THINGEven though there are a lot of intricacies involved in the skill, wicket-keeping is ultimately about collecting the ball and not letting it pass you. It is believed that good hands often compensate for poor foot movement – especially when standing up to the stumps.

“The footwork assists you in getting there, but ultimately hands have to do their thing,” elucidates Price.

However, having good hands is not a substitute for footwork. The leg movements of a wicket-keeper are often reduced to a footnote, with the acrobatic catches or nifty glove-work taking centre-stage. But in reality, it is how a wicket-keeper moves, that determines their position when they receive the ball.

“I did have to change my footwork a little bit because I was a traditional ‘hop across, get two legs to the leg side and collect the ball and then back to the stumps’ [type],” Taylor explains with reference to a right-hand batter.

“I said I’m going to be lazy with this because I didn’t have the strength in my legs to get both of them to the leg side as quickly as I needed to. So instead, I put one leg to the leg side, and then as the ball was coming – I’ve got long arms anyway – I could get my hands across and almost kick my left

“EVERY TIME I WOULD MOVE MY HANDS SIDEWAYS, I WOULD ALWAYS HIT THE TOP OF THE PAD ON THE

KNEE ROLL. I COULDN’T WORK OUT AT THE TIME WHETHER IT WAS

BECAUSE MY HANDS WERE TOO

FAR BACK OR I WAS TOO LOW.

AND IT WAS VERY MUCH A CASE OF, ‘YOU KNOW WHAT,

I CAN’T FIGURE THIS OUT, BUT IT’S REALLY ANNOYING

ME. I’M JUST GOING TO GO AND

TAKE MY PADS OFF!’”

Top Left: Wicket-keeping is a thankless job. © ICC

Left: Standing up to the stumps to the seamers has become quite common in the women’s game. © ICC

Top Right: Executing run outs is an under-rated skill. © BCB

ball to collect it in front of him, a trick Taylor observed and brought into her game.

“He almost ended up directly behind the stumps. I was like, that’s genius! He’s not using his hands but using his body weight! And your body weight will be quicker than just throwing your arms at the stumps because your entire body is going which is just rapid.”

“For me, what Dhoni does really well is, he spots the line of the ball and within a split second, he puts his hands where the ball is going to be and his body weight has already gone to the stumps and then it’s a simple case of whipping [off] the bails. I watched loads of footage on Dhoni and his movements and if you add the timing of me moving pretty late and that bounce position, plus the body weight going towards the stumps or down leg side there is a definite raise in my career.”

This transformation for Taylor did involve a lot of training to take the ball in front of the body. She practised


foot away with my right foot. So, all my weight landed on my right foot, which was ideal because then my body weight was going back to the stumps.”

That is easier said than done, but as Taylor maintains, she has always striven to gain any possible advantage, however slight, over the batter. And that meant doing away with the traditional wicket-keeping pads.

“Every time I would move my hands sideways, I would always hit the top of the pad on the knee roll. I couldn’t work out at the time whether it was because my hands were too far back or I was too low. And it was very much a case of, ‘You know what, I can’t figure this out, but it’s really annoying me. I’m just going to go and take my pads off!’. Our coach at that was fine as long as I had my helmet on.”

“I ended up feeling like I had all the freedom in the world to move wherever I wanted.”

This practice has now caught on with most wicket-keepers. There are quite a few who have done away with their pads, especially in white-ball cricket. In countries like England,

PERSPECTIVE

ones that are tougher.”Although collecting throws

and consequently effecting run outs appear simple, former Australia men’s stumper Ian Healy remarked that it is tougher than most think.

“The run out is something we take for granted I reckon. The ability to get out of your crouch, get running, receive the throw, take it and know where the stumps are, running in to them…” he said in a wicket-keeping masterclass on cricket.com.au, with niece Alyssa adding, “It’s not something you practise either, it’s reactionary.”

That wicket-keeping is a thankless job is a widely accepted notion. As Price observes, there rarely are awards given to wicket-keepers when they account for several dismissals in a match. It’s a difficult skill, but one these women have made look far too easy – taking cracking catches when standing back, affecting scintillating stumpings when up to the stumps. No sweat! But while they may have inimitable styles, Price and Jain insist their skill is learned and comes with practice.

And as the game has continued to evolve, pushing stumpers to advance their skills in front of the wicket, they have also managed to up their levels behind it as well; often setting trends of their own – even if by accident!

“Where I am now is where I’m almost the happiest or most comfortable or most efficient. I think that’s what I was looking for, I was looking for efficiency in my keeping and that helped,” says Taylor.

“Well done me! Uh, accidentally!”

S. Sudarshanan is the face you see on The Outside View videos. The self-anointed ‘Cricket Freak’ is a Test Cricket romantic and a Senior Sub-Editor at Women’s CricZone. He tweets @Sudarshanan7.

“THE RUN OUT IS SOMETHING WE

TAKE FOR GRANTED I RECKON. IT’S MORE

DIFFICULT THAN WE THINK… THE

ABILITY TO GET OUT OF YOUR CROUCH,

GET RUNNING, RECEIVE THE THROW, TAKE IT AND KNOW

WHERE THE STUMPS ARE, RUNNING IN

TO THEM.”

Top: ‘Fast hands’ are key when executing stumpings. © ICC

Australia and New Zealand, where the bounce is more consistent than in Asia, there is perhaps less fear that the odd ball could keep low and hit a player’s shin. As a result, more wicket-keepers from the sub-continent like Bhatia, Pakistan’s Sidra Nawaz and Bangladesh’s Nigar Sultana still wear their pads.

However, those who have done away with the external protection, often turn to shin pads or hockey pads that they wear under their trousers.

THROW BACK! One of the less emphasised aspects of wicket-keeping is collecting throws. The famous ‘keepers’ glare is often on show if a fielder throws the ball on the half-volley. But, surprise, surprise! Price was actually comfortable collecting them.

“Majority of the time I liked to take the ball on the half-volley, which everyone found weird, but I just found it comfortable. I didn’t mind if the players threw a dodgy throw at me. The back of length throw, on the bounce… those are the


MARGARET PEDENCareer statistics (1934-1937)

Leading Ladies

While her international career numbers are not exactly impressive, former Australia skipper Margaret Peden can be credited for laying the foundations for Australian cricket. A promising sportsperson, Peden helped rebuild the Women’s Cricket Association for New South Wales

(disbanded in 1916), and served as honorary secretary between 1928-44. In 1930, she founded the Australian Women’s Cricket Council, where she was secretary, before being appointed chairperson in 1946. Peden captained NSW between 1930-38 and was also entrusted with managing the organisation of matches. She was then appointed a state selector in 1932 – the same year in which she helped co-found the NSW Women’s Amateur Sports Council.

In December 1934, Peden was appointed Australia’s first Test captain, and led them in a three-match Test series against Betty Archdale’s England – the first official women’s Test series. • Australia’s first Test captain – led in all 6 Tests she played• Captained Australia to their first Test win: v England in Northampton (1937)• Shared in Australia’s first century stand in Tests: 123 runs with Hazel Pritchard v England (1937)• Led NSW to three consecutive premiership titles: 1931-1933• Inaugural honorary secretary of the Women’s Cricket Association of NSW:1928• Co-founded the NSW Women’s Amateur Sports Council: 1932• Set up Australia’s first indoor coaching centre:1934• Became an honorary life member of the Women’s Cricket Association, England:1950• Inducted into Cricket NSW Hall of Fame: 2014

After her wedding in 1935, Peden continued to be involved in the game, playing her final international series in 1937. Following the birth of her son in 1938, she served in various administrative positions in the NSW and Australian Women’s Cricket Associations.

Peden passed away in her home in Roseville in March 1981. Her name continues to be honoured in Australian cricket circles with the Under-15 girls competing for the Margaret Peden Shield at the district level in NSW. Additionally, the Peden-Archer medal is awarded every two years to the Player of the Series in the Women’s Ashes.

In 2014, Margaret Peden was inducted into the Cricket NSW Hall of Fame.

Celebrating some of the legends of the women’s game

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SPECIAL

FORMAT M I NO R HS AVG.

TEST 6 12 2 87 34 8.69


PEGGY ANTONIOCareer statistics (1934-1937)

Leading Ladies

At 17 years and 209 days, Peggy Antonio held the Australian record for youngest Test debutante for close to 74 years. A leg-spinner by trade, her numerous variations, including a top-spinner and

googly, earned her the nickname of “Girl Grimmet”. Antonio learned the game under the tutelage of Eddie Conlon when she was working at a shoe factory – home to a women’s cricket club of its own.

At 15, Antonio was called up to the Victorian squad, and shot to prominence two years later when she picked up 10 for 48 against England XI. She was duly added to the Australian team for their inaugural series and enjoyed immediate success. Over the course of her career, she picked up 31 wickets including three five-fers. She contributed a match-winning haul of 9 for 91 in Australia’s first Test victory in 1937.

England skipper Betty Archdale showered praise on Antonio and her superb all-round ability that consistently troubled England: “Small, dark, bright-eyed, red-cheeked and with a large grin, Peggy is an excellent all-round cricketer. Her bowling causes the most trouble to opponents, and I do not think we have any bowler as good in England.”• First Australian to take a Test wicket: Betty Snowball (15) in Brisbane (1934)• Youngest Australian and 4th youngest overall to take a Test five-fer: 17 years 290 days v England in Melbourne (1935)• Second-most 5-wicket hauls for Australia in Tests: 3• Played all of Australia’s first six Tests Once the squad returned from England in 1937, Antonio retired, at just 20 years of age, admitting that she no longer found the game enjoyable. After her marriage to Eddie Howard in 1943, she settled down and raised a large family.

In 2002, Antonio passed away at the age of 84.

FORMAT M R HS BAT AVG WKT BEST BOWL AVG SR ER

TEST 6 128 37 11.63 31 6-49 13.90 31.9 2.61

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Increased number of contracts, more security, visibility and opportunity, coupled with the creation of a more robust domestic system have seen Pakistan’s performances at the international level steadily improve.

• AHSAN IFTIKHAR NAGI

A NEW DAWN FOR WOMEN’S CRICKET IN PAKISTAN

When 19-year-old Fatima Sana accounted for West Indies

veteran Anisa Mohammed in the penultimate over of the truncated fifth and final ODI of Pakistan’s tour of West Indies in July, she became the first Pakistan bowler to record a five-wicket haul since 2013.

Sana was the best fast bowler on display, across teams, through the ODI series, snaring

11 wickets at an average of 15.09 and striking every three overs. The teenager turned heads with her unrelenting lengths, probing lines and vicious lateral movement.

Sana is one of the products of the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) age-group and regional academy programmes, which have served as pathways for young girls to graduate to the top level. She first surfaced in 2017 during open trials for an Under-17 regional tournament

and was quick to make an impression on the selectors.

After featuring in the tournament for Karachi, she was integrated into the regional academy set-up – formally known as the Skills2Shine programme – through which the board has deployed dedicated coaches for upcoming women cricketers in Karachi, Hyderabad, Multan, Bahawalpur, Rawalpindi, Abbottabad, Peshawar and Lahore.

LOOKING AHEAD


Left: Pakistan finished fifth in the second edition of the ICC Women's ODI Championship, narrowly missing out on direct qualification for the 2022 World Cup. © PCB

Below: Muneeba Ali plays a strong shot through the off-side. © PCB

“The Pakistan Cricket Board needed a programme to reach out to the girls at the grassroots,” Urooj Mumtaz Khan, the national women’s chief selector and former interim head of the PCB women’s department, tells Women’s CricZone. “The country lacks a culture of women's sports at the school and college levels.”

“The programme proved to be invaluable in 2019 when we began our preparations for the now-postponed Under-19 T20 World Cup. We went to the major cricket centres in the country to select four teams through open trials for

an Under-18 competition to develop a pool of cricketers who would be eligible for the World Cup, which then had to take place at the backend of 2021.”

In what was a major boost for the PCB, more than 900 girls showed up. Of these, around 60 players were drafted into the four teams by the members of the national selection committee, which also includes former fast bowler Asmavia Iqbal and batter Marina Iqbal.

“These players were provided the best facilities with all the group matches played at the historic Bagh-e-Jinnah

“IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT WE

CONTINUE TO FIND AVENUES TO BRING IN MORE TALENTED GIRLS IN OUR SET-UP, WHICH WILL IN

RETURN ENHANCE OUR POOL OF CRICKETERS. OUR MOVE TO ESTABLISH A PLAYER POOL

OF AGE-GROUP CRICKETERS

WORKED BRILLIANTLY FOR US AS

WE ARE NOW PROVIDING THEM

THE DESIRED FACILITIES AND RESOURCES AS

THEY CONTINUE TO GROW.”


ground in Lahore and the final was staged at the Gaddafi Stadium, the headquarters of Pakistan cricket,” the former skipper explains.

“This tournament underlined the board’s resolve to bolster its pool of age-group players which we had previously lacked. We got immediate results with the emergence of Ayesha Naseem, who a few months later toured Australia for the T20

World Cup, and has since been a part of the national set-up.”

Naseem, a 16-year-old hard-hitting batter, hails from Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. She captained Western Warriors to the Skills2Shine Under-18 Women’s Cricket T20 Championship trophy and was also crowned player of the final.

Since making her international debut in March

LOOKING AHEAD

2020, Naseem has scored 119 runs in six T20I innings at a strike rate over 130. Her tally includes scores of 31 and 33 against South Africa at Kingsmead in Durban and 45 not out off 33 balls against West Indies at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua.

After the Under-18 tournament in November 2019, the PCB organised a skills and conditioning camp for the best 25 players at the at a high-

“IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT THAT THESE PLAYERS

FEEL VALUED AND ARE ABLE TO LOOK AFTER THEMSELVES

FROM A FINANCIAL STANDPOINT. THE PURPOSE BEHIND

THE INTRODUCTION OF AN EMERGING CATEGORY IN 2020 WAS TO INSPIRE AND INCENTIVISE

ASPIRING CRICKETERS WHO HAVE SHOWCASED

THEIR SKILL ON THE DOMESTIC AND

INTERNATIONAL STAGE, ALONG WITH THOSE

FUTURE PROSPECTS WHO ARE ON

THE FRINGES OF THE NATIONAL

CIRCUIT.”


performance centre in Karachi, named after legendary Test batter Hanif Mohammad.

After that, the players continued to train at their respective regional academies and were recently called in to be part of an emerging camp under the watchful eyes of the national coaching staff. Over the course of 14 days, 27 players – which also included teenage players

from the national side – worked on their skills and fitness under the guidance of Pakistan head coach David Hemp, bowling and assistant coach Arshad Khan, and strength and conditioning coach Drikus Saaiman.

Impressed by the skills of these cricketers, the PCB has laid out plans to increase the number of domestic teams from three to four for the upcoming domestic

season. The 50-over and T20

competitions during the 2021-22 season will feature an emerging team to help these young, talented players become accustomed to the rigours and challenges of top-flight cricket.

“It is imperative that we continue to find avenues to bring in more talented girls in our set-up, which will in return enhance

“THERE IS A NEED TO MAKE THE

GAME ACCESSIBLE TO WOMEN.

AN ATHLETE’S PROFESSIONAL

LIFE CAN STRETCH TO 20 YEARS AT MAXIMUM. WE

ARE NOW LOOKING TO CREATE

OPPORTUNITIES FOR THEM

AROUND THE GAME AFTER RETIREMENT. OUR WOMEN

HAVE STARTED TO TAKE UP

UMPIRING ROLES AND OFFICIATE IN DOMESTIC

WOMEN’S MATCHES. THE

PCB’S PANEL OF MATCH REFEREES ALSO INCLUDES A

WOMAN."

Left: Fatima Sana is a product of PCB's rapidly expanding pathway system. © PCB

Below: Nida Dar is one of the central figures of Pakistan's squad. © PCB


“IT IS ALSO EQUALLY IMPORTANT

THAT WOMEN GET THE ACCESS OF

TOP FACILITIES AND VENUES. BEFORE,

THE WOMEN PLAYERS WERE NOT AFFORDED

OPPORTUNITIES TO PLAY AT TEST OR MAJOR VENUES,

WHICH HAS CHANGED DRASTICALLY IN THE

LAST TWO, THREE YEARS.”

LOOKING AHEAD

our pool of cricketers,” says Khan, who served as interim head of women’s cricket from September 2019 to May 2021. “Our move to establish a player pool of age-group cricketers worked brilliantly for us as we are now providing them the desired facilities and resources as they continue to grow.”

There are now around 100 players in the circuit – 60 emerging, identified in 2019 through open trials, and 45 at the senior level, who have been forming three domestic teams for the one-day and T20 competitions.

To further explore the unchartered territories, the PCB has collaborated with both government and private-run schools in different regions of the country through its Cric4Us programme, which provides sports equipment and training to young girls. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, it entered into a six-

month partnership with Uber in a bid to reach out to more than 1,500 girls in 14 cities.

Since the change of administration in 2018, and buoyed by the on-field results in the second ICC Women’s Championship, in which Pakistan finished fifth – two spots better than the inaugural edition – the PCB stepped up its efforts to boost the women’s game in the country.

With the patriarchal norms prevalent in subcontinent societies, there are expectations of women from all sections to manage household chores rather than explore opportunities outside of the walls of their homes.

There are signs of a cultural shift in the country with more women becoming part of the workforce across different industries, and families have also become more supportive with girls stepping out on to the field.

But, more often than not, they are encountered with the grim reality of sustaining themselves financially, and the looming cloud of post-retirement life.

To present the women’s game as a serious profession, the PCB did away with the half-yearly contracts and introduced better-paying year-long contracts in 2019. This increased the level of competitiveness amongst the current pool of cricketers, while incentivising the top performers.

Later in the year, the PCB announced their five-year strategy that included a roadmap to develop and grow the game in the country and inspire the next generation of women cricketers by investing in them.

For the 2020-21 season, an emerging category was introduced in the contracts. At first, this included nine players, before the 2021-22 season


travels business class on flights over five hours, bringing them at par with other international women’s sides and providing them a comfortable atmosphere during long travels.”

“There is a need to make the game accessible to women. An athlete’s professional life can stretch to 20 years at maximum. We are now looking to create opportunities for them around the game after retirement. Our women have started to take up umpiring roles and officiate in domestic women’s matches. The PCB’s panel of match referees also includes a woman. Former domestic players are now taking

saw two more spots added in the list. The total number of contracts now stand at 20. There has also been an increase in remunerations. While the four central contract categories have seen increases in the last two years, the PCB has also increased match fees for both international and domestic matches.

In their effort to make the game more inviting and inclusive for women in the country, the PCB, in April 2021, launched a parental support policy, which, along with supporting men cricketers, provides special relief to the women players. The players

are now allowed to transfer themselves into a non-playing role until the commencement of their paid maternity leave, which can last 12 months.

“It is extremely important that these players feel valued and are able to look after themselves from a financial standpoint,” says Khan. “The purpose behind the introduction of an emerging category in 2020 was to inspire and incentivise aspiring cricketers who have showcased their skill on the domestic and international stage, along with those future prospects who are on the fringes of the national circuit.”

“Our national team now

Above: At only 16, Ayesha Naseem has quickly established herself as one of Pakistan's most powerful batters. © PCB

Left: Omaima Sohail is one of several young batters coming through the ranks in Pakistan. © PCB


up coaching roles as well.” In life, as much as sport,

seeing is believing. The PCB, as part of its efforts to maximise the reach of the women’s game, has started to stream the domestic competitions to inspire the next generation of women cricketers.

When Bangladesh toured Pakistan in 2019, all five matches – three T20Is and two ODIs – were live-streamed on the board’s official YouTube channel. Aside from the visibility, that series stood out for one specific reason – the venue. All the games were played at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium. Before the series, the women’s team had never played at the 'Home of Pakistan Cricket'.

“When we say we want

to prioritise women’s cricket and help it grow, we have to take measures that enable that process,” Khan explains. “There is a need to establish the brand of the women’s game in the country. The coverage of women’s cricket will inspire and motivate more girls to pick up the sport.”

“It is also equally important that women get the access of top facilities and venues. Before, the women players were not afforded opportunities to play at Test or major venues, which has changed drastically in the last two, three years.”

“Prior to our team’s departure for Australia for the T20 World Cup in January 2020, the PCB organised a women’s T20 tournament at the

LOOKING AHEAD

Above: Now, as many as 20 players hold contracts across various categories in Pakistan. © ICC

Right: Ayesha Zafar pummels a delivery off the back foot. © PCB

National Stadium in Karachi. The final was a night-affair and it was broadcast through PCB’s YouTube channel. With the light towers of the National Stadium, which rests in the heart of the throbbing metropolis, lighting up the night Karachi sky, there was curiosity about what was happening inside the stadium and by the second innings, a large portion of the stands had filled up.”

The next step in further consolidating the women’s structure is its alignment with the domestic structure laid in 2019, which means a clear pathway from school level to the national team will also be laid for female players.

In 2019, the PCB overhauled


its domestic system to make it more robust, competitive and rewarding for the cricketers, while providing an ease of governance to administrators as it moved towards decentralisation of the game. The six Cricket Associations – Balochistan, Central Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Northern, Sindh and Southern Punjab – will be run by their own cricket boards, who will be responsible for organising and managing men’s and women’s competitions across 90 City Cricket Associations (CCA).

The CCAs will be responsible for organising school, college, university and club cricket in their jurisdictions. This will not only ensure that the women’s game spreads to every nook and corner of the country, but also that resources and facilities are available everywhere.

“Majority of our players in the national side are from the urban centres of the country, which we want to change. I believe we have an appetite for the women’s game and more and more families are comfortable with the idea of women playing

the sport,” says Khan. “There are many Fatima

Sanas and Ayesha Naseems out there who we want to reach and provide them opportunities to not only make themselves, but also the country proud.”

Ahsan Iftikhar Nagi is a media manager for high performance, domestic and women’s cricket at the PCB. He previously worked as the Pakistan correspondent for Cricbuzz and as a multimedia journalist at Dawn.com. He tweets @ahsannagi.

“MAJORITY OF OUR PLAYERS IN THE NATIONAL

SIDE ARE FROM THE URBAN CENTRES OF

THE COUNTRY, WHICH WE WANT

TO CHANGE. I BELIEVE WE HAVE AN APPETITE FOR

THE WOMEN’S GAME AND MORE

AND MORE FAMILIES ARE COMFORTABLE

WITH THE IDEA OF WOMEN PLAYING THE SPORT. THERE ARE MANY FATIMA

SANAS AND AYESHA NASEEMS

OUT THERE WHO WE WANT TO REACH AND PROVIDE THEM

OPPORTUNITIES TO NOT ONLY MAKE THEMSELVES, BUT ALSO THE

COUNTRY PROUD.”

After a quiet 2020, several young talents have grabbed the opportunity to showcase their class as most teams returned to the field in 2021.

• ANANYA UPENDR AN

THEWOMENTO WATCH

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BROOKE HALLIDAY (NEW ZEALAND)

M R HS BAT AVG BAT SR WKTS BEST ECO.R

12 206 60 25.75 76.29 3 1-11 5.10

Brooke Halliday made a smashing start to her international career with twin half-centuries in her maiden outings against England in February earlier this year. With scores of 50 and 60, she became the first Kiwi batter, across gender, to register back-to-back fifties in her first two ODIs. Through the series, the 25-year-old collected a total of 134 runs in five innings across formats, showing the ability to both consolidate and score at a rapid pace in the lower-middle order. The left-hander’s propensity to score freely over and through the off-side, coupled with her power through the leg-side caught the eye. Her nifty footwork – coming down the track and using the depth of the crease – points to an all-round game, with options to score against both pace and spin.

Halliday – the first left-hand batter to debut for New Zealand since Amy Satterthwaite in 2007 – earned a maiden central contract on the back of her strong performances against England. While she didn’t enjoy too much success against Australia in April, scoring only 72 runs in five LOIs, she showed great composure through some tough situations.

Aside from her skills with the bat, Halliday also bowls some useful medium pace. With a wrong-footed action, she has the ability to swing the ball in sharply to right-handers – her accuracy helping dry up the runs in the middle overs.

Going into a home World Cup next year, she is likely to play a key role in New Zealand’s campaign.

ROUND-UP

After a largely quiet cricketing year in 2020 when Covid-19 forced the

world into lockdown, the last few months have seen most teams return to the field. With an eye on a packed 2022-23 calendar, many have looked to expand their squads – giving young players a taste of top-level cricket.

While it was the senior, more established players – the likes of Lizelle Lee, Mithali Raj, Shabnim Ismail and Sophie Ecclestone – who continued to dominate proceedings, several young names have forced audiences around the world to take note of their talents. Although all teams have not had equal opportunities to showcase their abilities, a few have grabbed every chance that has come their way.

From the raw pace of Australia’s Darcie Brown, the brute power of Pakistan’s Ayesha Naseem, all the way to the all-round ability of Ireland’s Orla Prendergast, Women’s CricZone looks at a few of these young talents who could come to dominate the international circuit in the years ahead.

(Note: Stats across formats from January 1, 2020 to July 31, 2021)


ORLA PRENDERGAST (IRELAND)

M R HS BAT AVG. WKTS BEST BOWL AVG.

6 64 27* 21.33 9 2-7 8.88

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A talented football player who represented the Republic of Ireland Under-17 football team in 2018-19, Orla Prendergast became an international cricketer at the age of 17. Having made her T20I debut in August 2019, the allrounder has quickly become one of the lead players in what is a rather young Irish side. Handed a contract in July 2020 – on the back of promising performances in the domestic competition – Prendergast has since taken up the mantle of lead quick with little fuss.

After the retirements of the senior quartet of Claire Shillington, Ciara Metcalfe, and Isobel and Cecilia Joyce in 2018 and star allrounder Kim Garth’s move to Australia, Ireland’s squad appeared severely weakened. However, over the last few months, Prendergast has joined hands with some of the more experienced players to give them hope ahead of the ODI World Cup qualifiers later this year.

With an athletic run up, and strong action, Prendergast has shown the propensity to swing the ball prodigiously and also rush the batters for pace, becoming a reliable weapon for Ireland by consistently providing her team with early breakthroughs. Prendergast’s big, booming inswingers mean she is always challenging the stumps, forcing the batters to play early in their innings. When she gets it right, she can be devastating, as was seen through Ireland’s home series against Scotland and Netherlands.

With the bat too, the teenager has shown superb temperament and skill. She has a tremendous amount of power and a wide variety of strokes in her repertoire, which allow her to score freely even when the field is spread. She uses her feet superbly against pace and spin alike, and has also shown that she can access both sides of the ground – hitting over cover, down the ground, and nudging the ball through the leg side.

Although it’s early days in her career, Prendergast has shown that she has the potential to become a world-class allrounder.


DARCIE BROWN (AUSTRALIA)

M O W BEST ECO.R

2 5 1 1-26 6.40

Capable of consistently pushing the 120 kmph-mark, Darcie Brown is the latest tearaway fast bowler to emerge from Australia’s shores. In 2019, at the age of 16, she became the youngest player to be signed by Adelaide Strikers in the Women’s Big Bash League. Although she did not get a game that year, her name was being whispered in hushed tones – all saying she was the real deal.

When her WBBL debut came in 2020, Brown lived up to the hype, taking 10 wickets through the season, at an average of 22.1 and impressive economy rate of 5.52. She even picked up a wicket in her very first over, dismissing World Cup winner Nicola Carey with a sensational delivery that swung late, squared her up and crashed into middle and off stump. Brown’s performances saw her crowned WBBL06’s ‘Young Gun of the Year’.

After a dazzling start to her professional career, Brown didn’t have to wait too much

longer to make the step up to international cricket. The 18-year-old earned a call-up to the Australian team for their tour of New Zealand earlier this year, making her international debut in the second T20I. She showed no signs of nerves, clocking speeds over 120 kmph in her first over, rushing the batters for pace, and also getting the ball to swing late.

With an athletic run up, strong bound and quick arm speed, Brown seems to be effortlessly able to crank up her speeds. A high-arm action means she can get the ball to rise awkwardly off a length, pushing the batters back into the crease; and a strong wrist position allows her to generate late swing, forcing batters to feel for the ball with their hands.

Still very young – both in age and career – Brown certainly has much to learn, but if her early success and attitude are anything to go by, Australia appear to have found their next pace spearhead.

AYESHA NASEEM (PAKISTAN)

M I R HS AVG. SR

10 9 152 45* 19.00 121.60

Hailed as the ‘next big thing’ in Pakistan cricket after she earned her call-up to the national side for the 2020 T20 World Cup in Australia, Ayesha Naseem’s introduction to international cricket was a damp one. Forced to field for 20 overs before rain washed out Pakistan’s final encounter of the tournament against Thailand, the world had to wait a further 10 months before they got a glimpse of her power. Coming up against South Africa in Durban, a 16-year-old Naseem clobbered 66 runs at a strike rate of just under 130, in the lower-middle order.

In a Pakistan line-up largely devoid of power, her approach came as a breath of fresh air. Tall in her stance, and with a lovely transfer of weight into her shots, not only can Naseem pump the ball down the ground when looking for the boundary, but she also shows great touch and smarts in the middle. Lofted strokes down the ground and over mid-wicket are followed by glides past backward point or third man or a neat little tuck off her hips. Additionally, she is quick between the wickets, showing the ability to play with soft hands and steal runs in the circle and also push fielders on the boundary when looking for twos.

Recently in a T20I against West Indies, Naseem walked in with Pakistan tottering at 40 for 5 needing 97 runs to win in 66 deliveries. She smashed a career-best 45 not out off just 33 balls, and although she wasn’t able to get her team over the line – they lost by just 10 runs – her unbroken 69-run stand with Fatima Sana underlined a capacity to perform under pressure.

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ROUND-UP


KATHERINE FRASER (SCOTLAND)

M O WKTS BEST AVG. ECO.R

16 51.3 19 3-14 13.52 4.99

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Scotland’s Katherine Fraser made her international debut back in 2019 against Germany at the age of 14. Having gone wicketless in her first two matches, the off-spinner picked up three wickets in her third game against Netherlands, dismissing the promising Babette de Leede to take her maiden international wicket. A few days later, she followed it up with career-best figures of 3 for 14 whilst opening the bowling against Thailand – a spell that helped Scotland break their opponent’s record 17-match winning streak.

Through the T20 global qualifiers later that year, Fraser proved to be a central figure in Scotland’s bowling line-up, taking six wickets in five matches at an economy rate of only 5.25. She was one of the team’s bright spots in what was an otherwise disappointing campaign.

Fraser is a classical off-spinner with a side-on action. She gets over her front leg superbly, which allows her to drift the ball away from the right-handers before it pitches and turns in. Her slightly small hands mean she doesn’t quite get too much purchase from the surface, but what the teenager lacks in bite, she makes up for with accuracy and guile. Still only 16, Fraser is an intelligent young bowler who has shown the ability to challenge both the inside and outside edges of the bat. She varies her pace and trajectory smartly, drawing the batters forward, before getting the ball to dip just out of their reach, forcing them to throw their hands at it.

In addition to her skills with the ball, Fraser has also shown some spunk with the bat, and according to Scotland head coach Mark Coles, she has the ability to develop into a genuine allrounder.

Ananya Upendran is Managing Editor of Women’s CricZone. She tweets @a_upendran11.



(Records between June 1, 2020 and July 31, 2021)

AT A GLANCE: SERIES SUMMARIES

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A U S T R A L I A• Beat New Zealand 2-1 in the T20I and 3-0 in the ODI series at home

• Tied the T20I series with New Zealand, 1-1, and won the ODI series, 3-0,

in New Zealand

FORMAT M W L T N/R WIN %

ODI 6 6 0 0 0 100

T20I 6 3 2 0 1 50

B A N G L A D E S H ( Did not play during this period)

E N G L A N D• Beat West Indies 5-0 in the T20I series at home

• Beat New Zealand 2-1 in the ODI and 3-0 in the T20I series in New Zealand

• Beat India in the multi-format series at home on points, 10-6

• Drew the one-off Test

• Won the ODI series 2-1

• Won the T20I series 2-1

FORMAT M W L T DRAW N/R WIN %

TEST 1 0 0 0 1 0 0

ODI 6 4 2 0 0 0 66.67

T20I 11 10 1 0 0 0 90.09

I N D I A• Lost to South Africa 1-4 in the ODI and 1-2 in the T20I series at home• Lost to England in the multi-format series in England on points, 6-10 • Drew the one-off Test • Lost the ODI series 1-2 • Lost the T20I series 1-2

FORMAT M W L T DRAW N/R WIN %

TEST 1 0 0 0 1 0 0

ODI 8 2 6 0 0 0 25

T20I 6 2 4 0 0 0 33.33

I R E L A N D• Beat Scotland 3-1 in the T20I series at home• Beat Netherlands 2-1 in the T20I series at home


T20I 7 5 2 0 0 71.43

N E W Z E A L A N D• Lost to Australia 1-2 in the T20I and 0-3 in the ODI series in Australia• Lost to England 1-2 in the ODI and 0-3 in the T20I series at home• Lost to Australia 0-3 in the ODI series and tied the T20I series 1-1 at home


ODI 9 1 8 0 0 11.11

T20I 9 2 6 0 1 22.22

ROUND-UP


PA K I S TA N • Lost to South Africa 0-3 in the ODI and 1-2 in the T20I series in South Africa• Lost to West Indies 0-3 in the T20I and 2-3 in the ODI series in the West Indies


ODI 8 2 6 0 0 25

T20I 6 1 5 0 0 20

S O U T H A F R I C A • Beat Pakistan 3-0 in the ODI and 2-1 in the T20I series at home• Beat India 4-1 in the ODI and 2-1 in the T20I series in India


ODI 8 7 1 0 0 87.5

T20I 6 4 2 0 0 66.67

S R I L A N K A ( Did not play during this period)

W E S T I N D I E S• Lost to England 0-5 in the T20I series in England• Beat Pakistan 3-0 in the T20I and 3-2 in the ODI series at home

OV E R A L L R E CO R D


ODI 5 3 2 0 0 60

T20I 8 3 5 0 0 37.5

O T H E R T 2 0 I S E R I E S• Germany beat Austria 5-0 in Austria• Kenya beat Namibia in the final of the Kwibuka T20 tournament held in Rwanda• Germany beat France 5-0 at home

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M O S T R U N S

Player M R HS Avg. SR 100/50

Mithali Raj (IND) 8 416 79* 83.20 69.79 0/5

Lizelle Lee (SA) 7 384 132* 76.80 84.21 1/2

Tammy Beaumont (ENG) 6 328 88* 109.33 78.75 0/4

Rachael Haynes (AUS) 6 323 96 53.83 85.00 0/3

Amy Satterthwaite (NZ) 9 304 119* 38.00 78.35 1/1

H I G H E S T I N D I V I D UA L S CO R E S

Player Score Balls Opposition Venue Date

Lizelle Lee (SA) 132* 131 India Lucknow 12 Mar 2021

Amy Satterthwaite (NZ) 119* 128 England Dunedin 28 Feb 2021

Stafanie Taylor (WI) 105* 116 Pakistan Coolidge 07 Jul 2021

Punam Raut (IND) 104* 123 South Africa Lucknow 14 Mar 2021

Meg Lanning (AUS) 101* 96 New Zealand Brisbane 05 Oct 2020

M O S T W I C K E T S

Player M Wkts Best Eco.R Avg. SR

Shabnim Ismail (SA) 8 14 3-22 4.52 22.92 30.4

Diana Baig (PAK) 8 13 4-30 3.77 19.69 31.3

Fatima Sana (PAK) 8 13 5-39 5.37 23.15 25.8

Jess Jonassen (AUS) 6 12 4-36 3.49 13.16 22.5

Amelia Kerr (NZ) 9 12 4-42 5.21 31.75 36.5

B E S T B OW L I N G F I G U R E S

Player Figures Opposition Venue Date

Leigh Kasperek (NZ) 6-46 Australia Mount Maunganui 07 Apr 2021

Kate Cross (ENG) 5-34 India Taunton 30 Jun 2021

Fatima Sana (PAK) 5-39 West Indies Coolidge 18 Jul 2021

Anisa Mohammed (WI) 4-27 Pakistan Coolidge 09 Jul 2021

Diana Baig (PAK) 4-30 South Africa Durban 26 Jan 2021

H I G H E S T T E A M TO TA L S

Team Score Opposition Venue Date

Australia 325/5 New Zealand Brisbane 07 Oct 2020

Australia 271/7 New Zealand Mount Maunganui 07 Apr 2021

South Africa 269/3 India Lucknow 14 Mar 2021

India 266/4 South Africa Lucknow 14 Mar 2021

Australia 255/6 New Zealand Brisbane 05 Oct 2020

M O S T D I S M I SSA L S BY A ‘ K E E PE R

Player M Dismissals Ct St

Katey Martin (NZ) 9 10 8 2

Amy Jones (ENG) 6 8 6 2

Sidra Nawaz (PAK) 5 7 4 3

Alyssa Healy (AUS) 6 6 1 5

Muneeba Ali (PAK) 3 5 4 1

STATISTICS BETWEEN JUNE 1, 2020 AND JULY 31, 2021

O N E - D AY I N T E R N AT I O N A L S

TOP PERFORMERS: NUMBERS WRAP

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ROUND-UP


T W E N T Y 2 0 I N T E R N AT I O N A L S

M O S T R U N S

Player M R HS Avg. SR 100/50

Christina Gough (GER) 10 334 101* 111.33 106.70 1/2

Tammy Beaumont (ENG) 11 310 63 28.18 107.63 0/3

Janet Ronalds (GER) 9 261 105* 87.00 112.01 1/1

Deandra Dottin (WI) 8 247 69 30.87 115.96 0/2

Natalie Sciver (ENG) 11 243 82 24.30 126.56 0/2

H I G H E S T I N D I V I D UA L S CO R E S

Player Score Balls Opposition Venue Date

Janet Ronalds (GER) 105* 74 Austria Lower Austria 13 Aug 2020

Christina Gough (GER) 101* 70 Austria Lower Austria 14 Aug 2020

Sune Wittmann (NAM) 93* 60 Botswana Rwanda 08 Jun 2021

Danielle Wyatt (ENG) 89* 56 India Chelmsford 14 Jul 2021

Natalie Sciver (ENG) 82 61 West Indies Derby 26 Sep 2020

M O S T W I C K E T S

Player M Wkts Best Eco.R Avg. SR

Sarah Wetoto (KEN) 6 17 6-16 3.78 4.82 7.6

Anuradha Doddaballapur (GER) 10 15 5-1 2.39 5.26 13.2

Victoria Hamunyela (NAM) 6 15 4-8 3.23 4.53 8.4

Sophie Ecclestone (ENG) 11 14 3-35 5.43 15.14 16.7

Sarah Glenn (ENG) 11 14 2-11 6.37 14.42 13.5

B E S T B OW L I N G F I G U R E S

Player Figures Opposition Venue Date

Sarah Wetoto (KEN) 6-16 Namibia Rwanda 12 Jun 2021

Anuradha Doddaballapur (GER) 5-1 Austria Lower Austria 14 Aug 2020

Emma Bargna (GER) 5-9 Austria Lower Austria 13 Aug 2020

Shabnim Ismail (SA) 5-12 Pakistan Durban 31 Jan 2021

Sarah Wetoto (KEN) 5-12 Botswana Rwanda 07 Jun 2021

H I G H E S T T E A M TO TA L S

Team Score Opposition Venue Date

Germany 198/0 Austria Lower Austria 14 Aug 2020


England 177/7 India Northampton 09 Jul 2021

England 166/6 West Indies Derby 28 Sep 2020


M O S T D I S M I SSA L S BY A ‘ K E E PE R

Player M Dismissals Ct St

Amy Jones (ENG) 11 12 1 11

Shemaine Campbelle (WI) 5 10 6 4

Sarah Bryce (SCO) 4 8 2 6

Katey Martin (NZ) 9 8 5 3

Alyssa Healy (AUS) 6 7 4 3

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FACE TIME• Each image is a mix of three cricketers

• Clues for each (player) are aligned with the image • Can you guess all 6 players?• Answers to be mailed to [email protected] with the subject ‘WCZ Magazine Contest’

SUPER OVER

A1I am the head and have scored more than 1000 runs

and taken 50 wickets in both ODIs and T20Is. I was the Player of the Final when my side won its only world

title. I had to choose between athletics and cricket – having won gold medals in javelin. I have featured in WBBL, WCSL, Women’s T20 Challenge, and The Hundred.

2I am the eyes and recently made my return to my side after a gap of over five years. I scored a fifty and took four wickets in my debut Test. I was once hit for 32 runs

in an over in T20Is.

3I am the mouth and am very young in my international career having made my debut only in 2019. My career-best figures of 5 for 39 in ODIs came against my head’s

side. I was part of my country’s T20 World Cup side, but didn’t feature in the playing XI in any of the games.

B1I am the head and am the first bowler – and currently the only

player – to take 150 ODI wickets for my country. I made my international debut against my eyes’ team, and have played

more than 15 years of international cricket. I am an ODI and T20 World Cup winner.

2 I am the eyes and made my international debut against Australia in 2011. I have featured in more than 100 matches for my country since then and have taken over 50 wickets in both

short formats. I am married to one of my teammates.

3I am the mouth and am one of my head’s teammates. I am currently the vice-captain of my country. My list of achievements include being the first player from my country

to take a T20I hat-trick and also the first player to score 1500 runs and take 50 wickets from my side. I made my international debut in 2013, but don’t play for the country I was born in.


SUPER OVER

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WOM EN'S - Women's CricZone

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