Cricket first came into the limelight when Team India won the 1983 world cup. Post that there has been no looking back, became a religion for the citizens and the players as Demi-God. But in recent past, we have witnessed the evolution of Indian women cricket and produced maverick cricketers who made their name in the international arena such as Anjum Chopra, Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur, Jhulan Goswami and Smriti Mandhana to name a few who have broken economic, social, and men-centric obstacles to speak to the nation.
For a long time there has been talks to adopt more gender-neutral terms to encourage women to play the sport. The first step has been taken by Marylebone Cricket Club who have gone on to amend a law of the game by introducing gender-neutral term ‘batter’ and ‘batters’ instead of ‘batsman’ or ‘batsmen’. Marylebone Cricket Club was founded in 1787 and has the sole authority on cricket’s law. In recent times we have seen popularity women’s cricket growing many precentedly at all around the world.
MCC committee after having discussion with club’s specialist Laws sub-committee, finally approved this rule. MCC, the custodians of the game released an statement was quoted saying “MCC believes that the use of gender-neutral terminology helps reinforce cricket’s status as an inclusive game for all.The amendments are a natural evolution from work already undertaken in this area as well as an essential part of MCC’s global responsibility to the sport.” We have noticed that number of governing bodies and media organizations have been using the term batter.
Indian captain Mithali Raj is looking forward to tour of England and playing against Australia and the World Cup in New Zealand. For sometime there has been speculation that Mndia’s ODI captain Mithali Raj is all set to retire from the sport post ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup next year in New Zealand for her country.
The news was confirmed by India ODI captain Mithali Raj was quoted saying “The 2021 event will obviously be my last World Cup, and I hope to see India lift the trophy. part from being a great achievement for the team, World Cup glory will further advance the cause of women’s cricket in India and we saw that the 2017 World Cup had a positive effect as well.”
Winning any ICC event, be it in ODIs or T20I, will be a massive inspiration to the next generation of girls, but the 2021 World Cup, being in the fifty-over format, is considered the pinnacle by any cricketer. And I really hope India can go one better than they performed in the last edition.”
“India has been doing very well at ICC tournaments in the last three or four years, whether you talk about the (ODI) World Cup or the recently-concluded T20 World Cup.” she added.
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