GQEBERHA: When Chamari Athapaththu said she hoped Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) could organise more tours for the women against the top teams after the defeat against New Zealand, it was more of a cry than a statement. From being on the verge of making their first-ever T20 World Cup semifinals, they were out of the tournament as they suffered a 102-run defeat on Sunday in Paarl.
The diplomatic stateswoman that she is, Athapaththu maintained her calm and composure as she had an honest reflection on where Sri Lankan cricket is in comparison with the top teams. And she wasn’t wrong. The Sri Lankan women’s team did not play a single T20I since the 2020 T20 World Cup till the Commonwealth Games qualifier in January 2022.
To put it into context, at a time of political and financial turmoil during the pandemic, the SLC managed to organise 45 international fixtures for the men's team in the same period, but none for the women. Even after, barring the lone Indian tour in 2022 which was a part of the ICC ODI Championship cycle, they did not get to play against any of the top teams in bilaterals.
Prior to this World Cup, they had last played Australia in bilateral T20Is in September 2019, England in March 2019 and New Zealand in 2015. In fact, their last T20I before they landed in South Africa was the final of the Asia Cup in October 2022.
“Definitely, the youngsters need some experience. Experience is not coming from playing in the nets, so they need to play more cricket in the future. That's what we want to do… because we have to play a lot of cricket against the top four teams. Then we can improve our cricket and we can build good teams, so we need some matches in the future,” said Athapaththu.
It is not just Sri Lanka. Before their 2023 tour to Australia, Pakistan hadn't played bilateral T20Is against them for more than four years, and they haven't played England, whom they will face on Tuesday, since December 2019. Ireland hadn't played England before this World Cup in over ten years and they have never played a bilateral T20I series against India. And the lack of familiarity shows when they face the top teams in a global event.
However, there is more to it than just the international fixtures as the women's FTP for the ongoing cycle does look promising to the full members. Domestic structures have a massive role to play as well. At the same venue where Athapaththu expressed her frustration, New Zealand skipper Sophie Devine - who was livid with the performance against South Africa last week - said that she was not sure if the domestic system back home is helping them enough. "If I'm being brutally honest, I'm not sure if it's preparing us for international cricket and you're seeing now obviously the WBBL, The Hundred, and now the WPL, they're highly competitive tournaments and they're preparing players. We've seen Australia, we're seeing England and I'm scared to think what India's going to be like with the opportunities that they give themselves," Devine said.
It is not like there is not a gap between India and England and Australia. The last time Australia lost a T20I on the field against India was in the 2020 T20 World Cup and England was in July 2019. Devine called Australia "boring" for the same reason. India, who at the moment at least, are probably the third of the big three in the women's game in terms of strength and investment, have lost only to England and Australia in the previous three marquee T20 tournaments (2018, 2020 T20 WCs and CWG). As Devine said, with the advent of WPL, the gap between them and the rest is going to only grow wider. And the onus is on the respective cricketing boards to start acting before it becomes too late to bridge the gap.