International cricketers-turned-broadcasters Ian Bishop and Lisa Sthalekar have stressed the need for cricket boards to resume women’s cricket activities post-pandemic to ensure the momentum generated after the Women’s T20 World Cup in Australia earlier this year isn’t lost.
Bishop was recently involved as a commentator for West Indies’ Test series in England, the first taste of international cricket during the pandemic. “It should give cricket boards and the ICC greater insight into how to carry this game out. Now the women’s game and the administrators can look at this without endangering anyone’s lives and say: we can play cricket safely,” Bishop said, after a documentary — Beyond the Boundary — about the T20 World Cup in March was released by the International Cricket Council on an OTT platform.
“So now it’s time to get on the bicycle and start putting things in place because I don’t think women’s game can continue to be as inactive as has happened. We must look at how to drive it forward. Even if it’s for bilateral tours, because we know that now we can do it safely.”
Positives
Sthalekar, the former Australia international, was pleased with the fact that the Women’s Big Bash League and the Women’s T20 Challenge are planned by Cricket Australia and the Board of Control for Cricket in India. While she admitted that the clash of both the tournaments in November isn’t ideal, she preferred to draw positives.
“It’s not necessarily going to be the best product since you are definitely going to miss the Australian players, and potentially some international players but from an Indian domestic players’ perspective, it’s going to give a chance to those girls to play more cricket and open up doors to a few more of those on the fringes and give them a chance,” Sthalekar said.
“That will hopefully allow BCCI to see that there’s enough depth and hopefully next year we’ll get a full-fledged women’s IPL and everyone can join in at a proper time in April and May.”
