Women's Cricket - Where it was, Where it is and Where it's going to.

The Blogathonrunner is going to tell you blog readers a story.

Once upon a time, the Blogathonrunner, whilst back packing around the globe, stumbled across some cheap sporting entertainment taking place at the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground, otherwise known to the world as the MCG.  Yes that day, about 11 years ago to be precise, the Australian Ladies were taking on their New Zealand counterparts in a One Day International Cricket match on the hallowed turf of the MCG.  For people who know the Blogathonrunner, they know she is willing to give anything a go at least once. I've seen Synchronised Swimming for heaven's sake.  So off i trekked to the MCG to learn a little bit about women's cricket.

Now you must forgive me blog readers, the events of the match have mostly sadly faded from my memory, largely due to the fact i'm 11 years older, and i struggle to remember what occurred last week, let alone 11 years ago. I do recall a few pertinent facts about that day however.

1) One man and his dog wasn't far off the number of fans actually watching this match.  Of course i was there but i didn't have a dog. That's still quite an eery atmosphere in the vast cavern that is the MCG.
2) The ladies struggled to hit a ball past the boundary ropes, and the only times the ball went in the air it mainly went to a fielder who caught it.  Certainly do not recall a lady coming close to hitting a six that day.
3) If the cricket ball managed to reach the outer echelons of the cricket field, there wasn't a fielder who could throw the ball directly to the wicket.  It required sometimes a relay team of  three for the ball to eventually get back to the wicket area.

I'll be brutally honest blog readers. It was a match that didn't inspire all that much.  Put it this way, if that product had been put in front of TV Executives, I think they would likely have said, i think we'll stick to the fly fishing.

As i need no reminding blog readers, we are all 11 years older, but it seems that TV Executives are taking a significant interest in the product we call Women's Cricket now, not least, during the past few weeks, with the Women's ICC World Cup taking place in India.

So what has changed. When not being stuck in front of her computer doing her day job, the Blogathonrunner did occasionally pop on her TV these past few weeks and took a look at the breed of female cricketers a la 2013.  Let me tell you something blog readers, the Blogathonrunner was pleasantly surprised.

Going back to the beginning of the tournament, I watched some of the highlights of the match between the West Indies and India.  I was sitting there having a coffee, when all of a sudden my eyes popped out of my head.  A young West Indian lady by the name of Deandra Dottin, hit 4 sixes, yes 4 sixes, off the Indian bowlers.  It kind of initiated a reaction in me a long the lines, "Hello Deandra Dottin, who on earth are you and where did you come from?"  In other words i sat up and took notice.  This lady is clearly an entertaining cricketer and sixes are her currency, a bit like her male West Indian counterparts such as Christoper Gayle and Kieran Pollard.  In fact, after further investigation i find she holds the world record for the fastest ever T20 100 off only 38 balls.

The ladies hitting the sixes has been a personal highlight of this World Cup.  Now they haven't been sixes hit from Lords to the Oval as some of their male counterparts often attempt, but the point of the matter is techniques of the female batters must have improved tremendously over the past 11 years in that they are actually hitting them.  It also gets the fans excited about the women's game.  They will want to find out about the Deandra Dottins of this world.

One of the slightly concerning things that have been brought up during this World Cup is the striking professionalism of some teams such as the Aussies, England and the Kiwis, in comparison to others.  If you look at Australia, England, and New Zealand during the tournament, they have a set out a plan to execute the skills of batting, bowling, and fielding to best of their ability, and for the most part they did.  If you look from a financial perspective, it wouldn't surprise me if these 3 teams are the ones who have received the most investment to improve the women's game to where it is now.

Now there is no denying that the West Indies team has some major talent in their ranks and on their day they look like they can beat anyone.  If anyone saw the final of the tournament yesterday however, they would realise that when it comes to performing and executing every skill on a cricket pitch when it really counts, the Australian team were light years ahead of their opponents.  I mean yesterday one of the striking differences was the fielding.  I actually couldn't find enough hands to count the number of times the West Indian ladies misfielded the ball during the final, probably costing about 20 runs.  Hopefully, the West Indian ladies will have learnt a valuable lesson from their Australian counterparts yesterday, the fact that hitting sixes does not win you matches.  It's the whole package of batting, bowling and fielding that does that for you day in day out for the most part, something the Aussies, English and the Kiwis know about because professionalism has taught them to work at the whole package.

So what to the future of women's cricket. Well the Blogathonrunner would say that is largely down to the investors and promoters of the Women's Game.  There is no doubt Women's Cricket is now a product that can potentially be sold to the world.  There have been some extremely entertaining games during this World Cup.  That coupled with promoting the emerging personalities in the game such as Deandra Dottin or Elise Perry means grounds could be filled with five to ten thousand men and their dogs in the not too distant future, if the game is promoted in the right way.  What the Blogathonrunner would like to see in a four years time is that all countries have invested in their women's cricket teams, to ensure they are trained to the best professional standard possible.  With the West Indies's performance during this World Cup, there are some encouraging signs that there will be more emerging nations in the not too distant future, and you never know that may just lose to England in the next World Cup final. Hey, i may be a sports fan in general, but i still want my home country to win.