Come on Pune ! ‘Go For The Girls In Blue’

 

Move over Men in Blue, the Girls in Blue are taking over…

At the group stage of the World Cup 2017 in England, the Indian women’s cricket team has performed admirably, showing skill, determination and fighting spirit.

However, all this has gone in vain so far as our male-dominated society hardly gives any space to team in the media.

The TV channels have been selective so far, skipping a key match against the West Indies. Instead they showed some old stuff which had been aired a million times.

They showed the match on Hotstar instead, which does not make sense.

Of course the Pakistan match had to be telecast for obvious reasons. At least viewers got a chance to see a splendid fightback by the Indian team after a mediocre first innings.

Come on, Indian women are good, make no mistake. They have a far better attitude than our superstar brats who rest on their laurels until woken up through criticism.

While the Indian women were showing their mettle yesterday, the Indian team just gave in to a poor West Indian team in the face of a meagre score of 190 for a win.

That allowed the West Indies to get back into the series which should have been wrapped up in that fourth one-dayer itself. Their overconfidence was such that they dropped key players and experimented when they should have aimed to clinch the series.

The same thing happened in the recent Champions Trophy. When requiring the fighting spirit, the Indian team lost miserably. The sad part of it is they have no regrets. They went after their most successful coach Anil Kumble instead of focusing on their game.

If they don’t watch it, the hero worship and romance with the public will have a bitter end.

That is why India should go all out to promote the women’s team. Sadly, women’s cricket is neglected by the selfish and greedy Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

The BCCI has already botched up men’s cricket. They have let things drift in their quest for the mullahs. Even the administrators chosen to clean up the BCCI have been admonished for not doing much by the Supreme Court.

The girls are always treated poorly. The lesser teams are not even given proper facilities, let alone good boarding and lodging.

It reflects our attitude towards women in general. That condescending attitude must go as Indian women have come out of the shadow of the male. That aside, Indian women must be encouraged at all levels.

The media must also play its part !

Putting the women’s achievements at the bottom of the page in the newspapers does not help. Prominently displaying seven stories about the useless performances of the Men in Blue is unwarranted.

The TRP-driven TV channels must wake to facts. Our women are playing the World Cup and are topping the table at the moment. Give them their due instead of focusing on the men who are playing a weak West Indies team in the Caribbean.

The cricket-mad public would love to see captain Mithali Raj and Smriti Mandhana bat beautifully and Jhulan Goswami and Ekta Bisht bowl cleverly.

We have had a surfeit of the men. Back the women in their quest for the World Cup.

Stop being Male Chauvinist Pigs (MCPs) !

#Pune365ForIndianWomensCricket

#Views expressed in this column are the authors. All images used for representation only.

 

Babu Kalyanpur
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