India women's cricketer Shikha Pandey has posted a series of tweets on the suggestions being made in recent times to help attract more eyeballs to women's cricket. Pandey deems many of the suggestions "superflous", insisting that one doesn't need to experiment with the "fabric of the game" to catch viewers' attention.
The 30-year-old pacer is the leading fast bowler in India women's team, having represented the side in 52 ODIs (73 wickets) and 50 T20Is (36 wickets). She has also been handy with the bat in the lower-order for the side across the two formats.
Taking to Twitter, Pandey opined that women's cricket is evolving, and reducing/tweaking with the basics of the game will not help it grow.
"I have been reading/ hearing a lot about the changes being suggested to help grow women's cricket/ make it a more attractive product. I personally feel most of the suggestions to be superfluous," the opening tweet of her thread read.
"An Olympic 100m female sprinter doesn't run 80m to win and clock the same timing as her male counterpart. So the whole 'decreasing the length of the pitch' for whatever reasons seems dubious. Also, it almost definitely takes the double headers out of question.
"Reducing the size of the ball is fine, but as Ian Smith suggested, it only works if the weight remains the same. This will allow for bowlers to grip the ball better - more revs for the spinners - and hits will also travel further (not be the case if it is light)."
During a recent webinar conducted by the ICC, New Zealand captain Sophie Devine and India's Jemimah Rodrigues had suggested that using a smaller ball and shorter pitches might help women's cricket advance in the future. There was also a discussion on shortening the length of boundaries - however, Pandey insisted that the women's game is growing towards more power-hitting with time, urging the people to keep patience. (ALSO READ: 'Virat Kohli is the hardest-working cricketer I've seen': Vikram Rathour)
"Please don't bring the boundaries in! We have surprised you with our power-hitting in recent times, so remember, this is only the beginning; we will get better. Please have patience. We are skilled players, who are evolving," Pandey wrote.
"Growth can also be achieved by marketing the sport well. We don't have to tinker with rules or the very fabric of the game to attract an audience.
"Why not have DRS, Snicko, Hotspot, all of the technical acumen and live broadcast for every game that we play anywhere in the world. Heavy investments at grass root levels, equal playing opportunities, zero discrimination etc."
She finally urged that the comparisons between men's and women's cricket should be stopped, adding that they need to be considered as "different sport altogether."
"Please, don't compare women's sport, women's cricket, in this case, with men's sport. We need to see it as a different sport altogether... A sport that 86,174 spectators turned up to watch on March 8, 2020 and several million watched live on their television sets. They saw something special in us, and here's hoping you do too!" wrote the 30-year-old.
