Issues Faced By Women’s Cricket In India

Cricket in India is treated as the ultimate sport and cricketers are treated as the ultimate athletes. The action that makes cricket appear to be an endearing career option is the attention it gets from agencies, media, viewers, and sponsors. But in women's cricket, the picture is really disturbing. Women's cricket in India didn’t get the same attention from the media. The poor performance of Indian men in any tournament can result in being an emotional moment for all. However, the performance of the Indian women's cricket team does not evoke the same. The attention provided to men’s cricket is huge in comparison to women's cricket. The game cricket was developed by men to showcase their male characteristics and masculinity. As a result, men have always tilted the game in their favor and the favor of the already existing patriarchy. The resources and viewers play a very important role in succeeding in any sport. The former was non-existent for women's cricket associations due to the male-dominated control over the game. This resulted in the latter suffering as well.

The involvement of advertising agencies is determined by the viewers. Viewers also influence sponsors. The reason given by viewers for not watching women’s cricket is that they are just not as good as the men. It is difficult for the women’s team to attract new viewers due to the lack of resources. The Indian men’s cricket matches are highly promoted on social media platforms. That is the reason why non-cricket lovers are also aware of them. On the other hand, Women cricketers lack popularity on social media. The lack of resources and awareness leads women’s cricket to poor reach out to audiences.

Women’s cricket was used to be handled by a separate board of cricket in India. But now the International Cricket Council (ICC) and Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) has taken women’s cricket under their wings. The women’s cricket management by the BCCI is poor. There are no test matches for the senior team and no proper Under-16 team to introduce players to the game. The situation is even worse when it comes to junior levels. The facilities given to women cricketers are very little in comparison to men’s. This is the true evidence of gender discrimination in sports. It is very for cricketers to get motivation from their viewers and to play in front of a packed audience. This is high time to resolve the issues of the women’s cricket team for the betterment of the country’s performance in women’s cricket as well as for the players.

By- Manshi Bisht

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