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Let’s put women’s cricket into perspective. In a trial game, last summer, the Australian women’s team was beaten by the South Australian Under 15’s boy’s team.
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Taunton the home of women’s cricket
By Will 2 years ago, at the end of August Leave a comment on this post
Taunton was announced today as the new home of women’s cricket in England. I’m a newcomer to the women’s game and, while it (and my knowledge of it) is still in its infancy, watching a one-dayer at Lord’s the other day was a revelation.
There were a fair number of people, all cheering and whooping for the girls. Before play began (it was delayed due to the heavens chucking it down) several players jumped into the Grandstand to sign autographs and were quite literally mobbed. I hadn’t expected that.
So they now have a place to call home. This really should be the foundation the game needs in order to progress. I’m not qualified to comment any more really(!), so instead, read my colleague Jenny Thompson’s piece today, or Charlotte Edwards’s.
Tags: charlotte-edwards, taunton, women, womens-cricket |
5 Responses to “Taunton the home of women’s cricket”
August 30th, 2006 at 12.35 am
August 30th, 2006 at 1.36 am
Whilst I know nothing of your cited fixture, not being one to follow the South Australian Under 15’s, I’d question any ‘perspective’ it’s said to place on women’s cricket.
Naturally, as a woman, I’m biased. But until recently, when I started playing myself in fact, I barely followed women’s cricket. Why? Because I knew nothing about it. On the face of it, women’s cricket is a lower scoring form of the game and I could barely name the team’s captain until the Ashes last year.
That’s the problem that women’s cricket faces. As well as facing the fact that they are pointlessly and constantly compared to male counterparts, they suffer from a void in coverage. This has much improved, with cricinfo, to some extent the BBC and even Sky providing ever expanding coverage. Gaining a welcoming home ground can only help in providing some tradition and consistency to the women’s game. But whilst broadsheet sport pages everywhere cover their games with less attention than they do a county dead-rubber, then opinions such as yours and Robin Marlar’s are unlikely to change. In the meantime, Charlotte Edward’s team can take pride in the fact that, unlike the men, they whitewashed the opposition in their one day series, not the other way around. With the summer they’ve had, hopefully things will remain on the up.
August 30th, 2006 at 9.13 am
Hear hear!
It’s also noticable that women’s matches are almost always scheduled in midweek (both tests, and four out of the five ODIs in the series with India). I’d love to go watch, but can’t because of work. Sort it out!
August 30th, 2006 at 12.42 pm
Too true - I really wanted to go to Grace Road, but my transport relies on parental car loans. Sigh.
August 30th, 2006 at 1.39 pm
It’s brilliant!
Here’s some trivia for you.
The first recorded women’s cricket game was held in Guildford, Surrey on 26th July, 1745.
Overarm bowling was invented by a woman - Christine Willes in the early 1800s. Underarm bowling messed up her crinoline skirt.
The first Cricket World Cup was staged in 1973 - a women’s event. The first men’s World Cup followed two years later.
The Women’s Cricket Association was founded in England in 1926 but the ICC Women’s Committee was only formed in 2005.
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