Sporting fans rejoice! Close on the heels of ICC Champions Trophy, where our men in blue reached the final, is the ICC Women’s World Cup. To be held from June 24 to July 23 in England and Wales, the 11th edition of Women’s World Cup will see Australia, England, New Zealand, Windies, India, South Africa, Pakistan and Sri Lanka participating.
In what is certainly an unprecedented move, the ICC, in its press release, has announced that every single match will be broadcasted live, across 139 countries. Aarti Singh Dabas, Head of Media Rights, Broadcast and Digital said: “This is the first time in the history of the women’s game we will be producing live coverage of all ICC Women’s World Cup fixtures. The ICC is committed to the growth of women’s cricket and the extensive coverage for viewers over the tournament is testament to that.”
While we appreciate the ICC’s extra efforts to promote women’s cricket, we do notice that while the “Men’s” World Cup was addressed as simply that, “Women’s” World Cup demands the extra moniker of “Woman”. We would certainly like this to be changed in some way, in future editions of both these events.
World over, women’s sports have been neglected, and treated as secondary to men’s sports. In India, owing to various cultural and social barriers, women are restricted in their every day movement, let alone being encouraged to play sports. We salute the ICC for its resolve to better the state of women’s cricket, and to promote it in a spectacular way. We will be cheering our women during the World Cup- how about you?
