CHENNAI : On a recent overnight interstate train journey, I found myself succumbing to the tropes that have come to represent travel travails of the Indian middle class and our palace on wheels. I found myself in conversation with a young boy, about 10 years of age. Transitioning from rudimentary banter about schools and summer vacation, the conversation moved to another commonality — cricket. Having listed out his favourite players, the young traveller went on to describe his regular sporting fare — scoring six sixes in scorching heat in one of the few community playgrounds that exist around the city — probably a hyperbole.
What was surprising was how indifferent he seemed towards, not including his female counterparts in the game that we have all come to follow and worship, almost. And when asked about the lack of inclusiveness, he replied, unaware of the oppressive conditioning that has permeated into his life, ‘girls don’t play cricket’.
Given that I grew up in the system that preached women in sports can never be as good as the men, I am going to try and not sound holier than thou, but, how does this narrative still exist? Having seen women bag Olympic, Commonwealth, Asian Games, and World Championship medals in different disciplines, it’s surprising that women still don’t get the same audience and credit for a sport that is touted to be the country’s religion.
One capitalist-led justification is that there’s no money in women’s cricket; they have no sponsors; who will pay to broadcast the matches if there’s no one to watch? Sure, I’m not going to be ignorantly utopian and neglect the cause-and-effect at play, but, one way to change how women in sports are perceived is to change how the system acknowledges that girls can play alongside boys when they are growing up.
This comes just two days after a landmark sporting event that took place at the Wankhede; nope, not CSK getting to the final, but the first Women’s Indian Premier League (IPL) exhibition game between the Trailblazers and the Supernovas. It’s a step in the right direction. Sure. But the fact that the match took place at 2 pm on a working day with just around a thousand people turning up is proof of concept that the country is just scoring points for trying when it comes to women’s cricket.
The exhibition match’s primary purpose seemed to be to hold a women’s IPL game, and that credit where it’s due that has been achieved. But to build something robust will need work, not just on paper, but on the field too. Given how our country’s sporting infrastructure isn’t the best developed, we have resorted to scouting and identifying players at grassroots level.
Chennai is one of the country’s hubs when it comes to discovering sporting prodigies and talent on the street. This could also be due to the fact that we have a thriving street-cricket culture. Most schools still have ‘PT classes’ that have different games for girls and boys, never letting any interaction take place. And yet, when it comes to getting just enough players to play a game on a Wednesday afternoon, the boys are never told that its okay to include the girls and that the girls want to play too.