India is considered to be the most powerful cricketing nations. It has around 44 international stadium meant for developing cricket. Sadly like all the patriarchal set up, the term cricket also means men's cricket. India has finished 7th out of 8 in ICC World Cup. A similar performance would have made headlines and wont have been exaggeration if weeks the news channels would have stepped up to analyse what went wrong. The news of Women's Cricket exiting the cup came as a small news segment. Nothing else. The state of Indian Women's team is in shambles to say the least.
I must have been around 10 or 11 when in my small town of hazaribagh (yes there is city called hazaribagh in India), a match took place which featured Diana Edulji (considered the Kapil Dev of Indian Cricket Team). The match was not even held in dilapidated stadium we have. It was conducted on a ground (football ground outside St. Columba's Collegee) with bushes around and if the ball went beyond boundary, ladies have to fetch the balls from those bushes. Imagine in any era a Sachin Tendulkar had to face the same situation.
Why do we have such a sorry state of sports in India and more so for a female? The answers are not so hard to find. In our country, sports are rarely played by women. I don't recall many instance of watching girls play cricket in the ground. Coming from tribal states I have seen football matches of local village girls in jharkhand (but no where else). There are girls with encouraging parents who do well in individual games (though he number is very few and not upto the international standards), but as a collective sports examples are very few. Cricket is an expensive game. A decent cricket kit would cost around 10 thousands and a good bat around 7 to 10 thousand. That's a one hell of investment for sports Also, there is no format which encourages girls to undertake cricket as sports as BCCI only lets women cricketers to either participate in under 19 or senior cricket. So by the time a girl has not dropped out from school or games she has the option to play. However, there is no encouragement to develop cricket in women at a young age. There is no benefit that shows up for a parent to let their kids play games leave aside a girl playing the same.
There is also an issue of mentality, a kid who is good at sports is automatically considered weak in academics. And constant reminder of he neglecting his studies makes him neglect study. Well the issues are manifold but there has to be some solutions. I often wonder if rich cricket body can not spare some cash for building great academic centre atleast in every state capital.
Encouraging girls for sports itself is great challenge where the society does not even want girl to go to school. Unless we receive a basic independence like playing and reading, no issue of empowerment would be addressed properly. And for that it is not always necessary to wait for government to do something. I would close with a real disturbing line which a small park near our home at delhi gives clear instructions for their parents to not let there adult girls roam in the park.
I must have been around 10 or 11 when in my small town of hazaribagh (yes there is city called hazaribagh in India), a match took place which featured Diana Edulji (considered the Kapil Dev of Indian Cricket Team). The match was not even held in dilapidated stadium we have. It was conducted on a ground (football ground outside St. Columba's Collegee) with bushes around and if the ball went beyond boundary, ladies have to fetch the balls from those bushes. Imagine in any era a Sachin Tendulkar had to face the same situation.
Why do we have such a sorry state of sports in India and more so for a female? The answers are not so hard to find. In our country, sports are rarely played by women. I don't recall many instance of watching girls play cricket in the ground. Coming from tribal states I have seen football matches of local village girls in jharkhand (but no where else). There are girls with encouraging parents who do well in individual games (though he number is very few and not upto the international standards), but as a collective sports examples are very few. Cricket is an expensive game. A decent cricket kit would cost around 10 thousands and a good bat around 7 to 10 thousand. That's a one hell of investment for sports Also, there is no format which encourages girls to undertake cricket as sports as BCCI only lets women cricketers to either participate in under 19 or senior cricket. So by the time a girl has not dropped out from school or games she has the option to play. However, there is no encouragement to develop cricket in women at a young age. There is no benefit that shows up for a parent to let their kids play games leave aside a girl playing the same.
There is also an issue of mentality, a kid who is good at sports is automatically considered weak in academics. And constant reminder of he neglecting his studies makes him neglect study. Well the issues are manifold but there has to be some solutions. I often wonder if rich cricket body can not spare some cash for building great academic centre atleast in every state capital.
Encouraging girls for sports itself is great challenge where the society does not even want girl to go to school. Unless we receive a basic independence like playing and reading, no issue of empowerment would be addressed properly. And for that it is not always necessary to wait for government to do something. I would close with a real disturbing line which a small park near our home at delhi gives clear instructions for their parents to not let there adult girls roam in the park.
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