Wow, Shabnim, take a bow

Rohit Mahajan

Last week, Shabnim Ismail bowled a ball that clocked 132.1 km/h (82.1 mph) on the speed gun. In another time, or in another country in our times, Shabnim would have been confined to the kitchen, cooking curry — which, indeed, is something she loves doing.

But being South African, Shabnim managed to escape the walls created by culture, misogyny, patriarchy, religion — for long, the 35-year-old has been considered the fastest bowler in women’s cricket. All of 5ft 4in, Shabnim becomes a real terror when she’s handed a cricket ball.

Last week, she bowled the fastest ball recorded in women’s cricket; last year, she’d become the first woman bowler to breach the 80 mph mark. This may not appear frighteningly fast to most — indeed, it would be somewhat akin to the slower deliveries of, say, Shoaib Akhtar or Brett Lee.

Women will never be able to bowl as fast as men, of course — it’s no secret that men are stronger than women, for it all boils down to hormones, bone density, muscle mass, the size of the heart and lung.

But take a less myopic — and perhaps less misogynistic — look at women’s cricket, and the significance of Shabnim’s feat would dawn on you; the 80 mph mark has long been considered the holy grail for women fast bowlers — tantalisingly close, but unattainable. Very close to a sportsperson’s heart is the idea of achieving a personal best — this concept is alien to those of us who’ve settled into the comfortable rut of mediocrity.

Shabnim, who’s had a tough childhood in a South Africa attempting to transition from apartheid towards some semblance of equality, is now a role model for little girls wishing to become fast bowlers, across the world.

Sport may not have much inherent value, but it’s possibly the most visible, effective means to create non-toxic role models for little girls, especially where they’re needed most — the regions benighted by gender-inequality, among which we can safely include South Asia.

Shabnim is currently playing for Mumbai Indians in the second season of the Women’s Premier League, the female version of the IPL T20 tournament. The South African retired from international cricket last year, but is determined to remain a very, very fast woman. “People say when you get older, your pace drops, but I firmly don’t believe in that,” Shabnim said.

A semi-retired sportsperson, 35 years old, achieving a personal and world best should serve as an inspiration to all.

T20 debate

Which brings us to the value T20 cricket brings to the women’s game. For most male cricketers, it’s an alluring distraction that could damage their game; in men’s sport, purists see it as a Faustian bargain — going for the riches at the cost of damage to their technique, and harm to Test cricket.

But for the women, who play practically no Test cricket, it’s a great boon — and women from across the world had been hankering for the BCCI to create a women’s version of the IPL. “It’s a tournament we all had been crying for,” said Kate Cross, English pace bowler, in December. “Nat Sciver going for 320 grand last year, some of the money we’d never heard of in women’s cricket before.”

England’s Nat Sciver-Brunt was bought by Mumbai Indians for a mind-boggling £320,000 at the inaugural WPL auction last year. At this year’s tournament, the money has placed her in a moral quandary — her national team is to play against New Zealand on March 19, two days after the WPL final. Obviously, she put money over nation — and anyone who blames her for that would be a hypocrite. “Yeah, I mean, I would be lying if I said no,” she said of her decision. “Having gone for that much in the first year, yeah, it certainly came into consideration. Hopefully this weigh-up of club versus country doesn’t happen again. I know we’ve seen it happen with the men’s side of things and continue to happen for quite a while, and still will.”

The Faustian bargain was created by BCCI’s money, but now it warns India’s top players that the “trend” of prioritising IPL over domestic cricket is a “cause for concern”!

Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not given annual contracts by the BCCI last month due to their obvious reluctance to play domestic or Test cricket — job security at IPL can tamper a player’s ambition to play for India.

As for Shabnim — and India’s own cricketers such as Renuka Thakur, Saika Ishaque, Radha Yadav and Jasia Akhtar — WPL is helping them break new ground and emerge as role models.

Why does Iran have a women’s kabaddi team but not Pakistan, this writer asked a Pakistani coach training the Pakistani men’s team at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea. “Women should not be in sport… And Iranians, they’re not even real Muslims,” he said. This coach, modest and affable and quite hate-free in all other aspects, seemed less than kind towards Iranians (for being Shia) and women (for being women). Such are the chains of the mind that women role models like Shabnim or India’s own cricketers and other sportswomen are helping break.

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