Not quite cricket for women yet

Subhash Rajta

Tribune News Service 

Chandigarh, March 26

Novak Djokovic, the world’s No. 1 tennis player, feels men deserve a higher salary than women. Reason: the men’s matches draw more spectators. The majority of the women tennis players didn’t agree — some expressed disappointment, some disapproval, and some slammed the Serbian for his apparently chauvinist views.

When the same-salary question was lobbed at women cricketers — India skipper Mithali Raj and West Indies captain Stafanie Taylor — it drew a mixed response. They saw some merit in Djokovic’s argument, but wanted to be treated at par with the male cricketers nonetheless.

“You have actually hit me in the head there. We would love if we get the same pay as men because we are working just as hard,” said the West Indian skipper.

Raj seemed more prepared for the question; maybe she had given the idea some serious thought at some stage. “I feel the game is the same, the rules are the same,” she said. “But yes, when you see how many people turn up for a men’s game, how much revenue they generate…” she said, her voice trailing off.

But she didn’t take long to gather her thoughts. “People are still trying to catch up with women’s cricket. So, maybe in a year or two, when women’s cricket does very well and starts attracting more crowd, we will deserve the same pay as men.”

Struggle ahead

Given the current scenario, it’s going to take much longer than the skipper thinks for women’s cricket to bridge the gap with men’s cricket and to come even close to their male counterparts in terms of popularity. Right now, even the aspiring women cricketers don’t know the names of women cricketers outside their own team — someone as famous as Meg Lanning, the Australian skipper, didn’t ring a bell to the local cricketers who had thronged the stadium to see the Indian women practise on Saturday.

Besides, there’s an India-West Indies women’s match ahead of the India-Australia extravaganza on Sunday evening. Even though the Indian women’s team is in the same situation as the men’s — just like the men’s contest against Australia, their game against West Indies is a virtual quarterfinal — all the talk and interest is centered on the men’s match.

Maybe winning the World T20 will change things a little for them. After all, men’s cricket, too, needed the 1983 World Cup triumph to catch the imagination of the entire nation.