2014 Diary

A Ramble on Women's Cricket
 - with diversions -

This diary will be updated erratically throughout the year.

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<Late July>

The news emanating from Pakistan in recent weeks has been most disturbing. Allegations of requests for sexual favours in order to be selected and even the suicide of a potential international player. I have written previously of the Khan sisters, Shaiza and Sharmeen, who started women's cricket in that country. I heard many tales of the dangers they faced and they seem rather more real to me now than at my first hearing.

I had hoped that when the PCB took over the running of the sport, and especially when Pakistan gained their first gold medal in any sport for the first time in many years due to the efforts of the women's cricket team, that some sort of normality prevailed. It seems I was wrong!

Nida Dar

• Pakistan International Nida Dar receives 'death threats' from relative

• 'Abused at Gunpoint'

• 'Assault on woman cricketer'.

• Pakistan Player Commits Suicide Following Allegations She had been Sexually Harassed

• Comment from Pakistan

• England triumph - Pakistan tragedy

<August>

The England County T20 is now done and dusted. Who won? Well as of 15:00 on 5th August it's hard to know. There's no article on the ECB's web site, perhaps a little early, and Play-Cricket has quite a number of matches missing. A Middlesex report suggests Notts have but that was not the feeling at one venue where the last round was played. No doubt we'll discover all in due course.

The various England Squads (Academy) have been announced and my first reaction was scanning furiously up and down wondering why there was one name I couldn't seem to find. She's had a superb County season with at least two centuries, the one I watched being bested this season only by Charlotte Edwards 150 against us (Sussex) in the County Championships. It was filled with classy shots - see below - as well as considered aggression. As arguably the second best fielder in the country (you won't need to know who the best is) where was she? Her bowling too has been more than useful.

I am mystified! Who am I talking about - come on - you know that as well as I do.

Guess the name of this Notts Player - who mastered this shot
and the others in the coaching manual during this match

An average of 57 including two centuries (and the third highest run scorer in Division One of the County Championship 2014 must make the player wonder what she has to do to be included. I can't figure it out, and I've only met one regular supporter who thinks he can. On this occasion I can't agree with him.

One name I was pleased to see was that of another Notts player, Sonia Odedra. A County stalwart for a number of years she well deserves her opportunity to show what she can do at the next level.

Notts All-Rounder Sonia Odedra representing her county (right) and batting at the Super 4s

Food for thought?

England and India’s women’s cricketers will contest a Test match beginning next week. But the choice of venue and the cost of access is making it feel like a niche sport, out of reach of ordinary people. An opportunity to introduce average cricket fans to the women’s game is being completely squandered.  ANTOINETTE MULLER. Full article

Some ideas for  improving the game will, inevitably, cost sums of money that you'd be justified in calling 'not insubstantial'.  However here's one that should cost peanuts or maybe absolutely nothing at all. How about 'ball-girls' at International matches...

My thoughts so far are... (in no particular order)

1. Use U-13 or U-15 girls in their county playing or training kit (track suits?) Use the county in which the game takes place or adjacent counties to minimise travelling. In fact a mix of county kit might be a good idea to show the game isn't just 'local'.

2. These girls are well used to fielding cricket balls so there will be no Health & Safety considerations (after all at Wormsley members of the public sit right at the rope's edge and they are far less well equipped to deal with a hard ball than the girls would be, and unlike the security men you see at the men's games, they would have all their attention on the game. I would suggest the security men at Lord's are at far greater risk of injury but apparently the Safety issue must be considered minimal (or nil) or they would not be there).

3. It would be a great fillip for the girls.

4. It would show 'Joe Public' that girls of all ages play the sport and county level is not out of the question for their daughter, and indeed show girls of similar age it could be them.

5. It would mean a few extra spectators (as the girls can't drive themselves there) and I hope the ECB would provide free entry for the drivers.

6. It would speed up play, meaning no fielder had to trot from the ring to boundary and back to the ring again.

7. The PA could make mention of them to publicise girls age group cricket at club and county

8. I would be happy to take pictures of them, perhaps with one or two of the England squad and provide free prints or emailed jpgs to each of the parents of the girls.

9. If it was felt that the length of the game was too long for the youngsters to concentrate two groups could be rotated (at say hourly intervals) as per Wimbledon.

10. Changing facilities would not be required as girls could arrive in their kit. The minimal amount of exercise they are likely to get would mean they could travel home without the necessity of changing.

11. Other things I have yet to think of.

Cons: At the moment not a single one has crossed my mind. For a pessimist and cynic (and one used to writing Risk Assessments) like me that's a rarity.

The Test starts today at Wormsley

Chosen your XI yet? This time I've had more trouble than usual not being at all sure who's fit and who isn't. There was a time earlier this season when I felt the 'unfits' could easily take on and beat the 'fits' (once they'd recovered of course). Does this suggest to you something is not right here somewhere. I played cricket - yes only at school and club level I know - but in more than two decades can't recall missing a single game due to fitness except following the rather poor choice of stopping a ball from a medium-pacer with my left eye when keeping wicket. It wasn't the most sensible decision I ever made on the cricket field but one consolation was finding Ken Suttle (Sussex opening bat of the day) in the same A&E with the same problem. I guess he would have been batting so I felt taking a ball down the leg side standing up gave me more excuse.

Clare Taylor (that's the bowler in case anyone's confused) missed a game only very rarely until the very end of her career and it would be an odd day when she didn't bowl her quota of overs. She pretty much sorted her own fitness regime I've been told. Well why not? She knows her own body better than anyone else!

So what's different? Well the only thing that occurs to me is 'training'. By that I don't mean a session in the nets, a jog around the pitch or riding a few miles on a bike; I mean picking up weights and various other 'strength and conditioning' procedures. Being strong and conditioned (whatever that means) sounds a great idea until it creates some sort of injury that puts you on the wrong side of the boundary rope for weeks on end. You're little use to yourself or the team there. My advice, and I am no expert judging by all these qualifications that have appeared in the last decade or two (although I did read Physiology at University) would be skip some of this heavier work and play more cricket. In my early days that was the way it was done. I see no evidence that injuries were higher then than they are now. In fact it appears quite the opposite!

Goodbye Wormsley

England were convincingly beaten in the one Test match in this series, not least because, in the second innings at least, the Indian batsmen kept their heads and, knowing time was not a factor, batted in true Test Match fashion. It is true that winning the toss was a huge advantage to India but, as they say, "that's cricket". Even if you have the best of the conditions you still have to make use of them and that they did.

Slideshow of Images from the Match

The strangest feature of the match was the considerable number of lbws given, 20 in all beating the number ever given before in a women's Test and equalling that in a men's. Why that should be is a mystery to me although many batsmen insisted on playing around their pads long before they'd settled in. Would I quarrel with any of those decisions? Finding a good position behind the bowler's arm was virtually impossible due to wide site screens and flanking sight breaks as well. I could honestly quarrel with only two. One seemed to me, side on at the time, to be going over the top, and the other made me wonder when the bowler herself didn't bother appealing; not proof I know but it raises major doubts.

Much news originated from the ground, however. Perhaps the most obviously 'new' news was that the county Championship will be in coloured clothing next year for Divs. 1 and 2, and that we will not be visiting Wormsley again in the near future as there is no easy access to the ground and the ECB is anxious for larger crowds. There is the suggestion that Lord's may be chosen. While the prospect of four days of travelling to and from the metropolis, never a pleasant pastime, fills me with some dread, there's no doubt it would considerably enhance the game's reputation. The downside of venues like this are that crowds look lost in large stadia. My choice would have been Chelmsford, which should become the new "Home of Women's Cricket" in view of the spectacular turn-out that always seems to be achieved there.

Before we leave the Test let me mention my 'Player of the Match'. Now Jenny Gunn quite rightly earned that title for her performance with bat and ball. In fact it must have been one of the easiest those doing the selection have ever had to consider, but one player was a revelation to me and that was Smriti Mandhana. Her purity of stroke play was quite remarkable. Is it wrong to compare and India player with an English one? If not then I can only say she's the David Gower of the Indian sub-continent!

Smriti Mandhana shows a high right elbow

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And just to show that in some parts of the UK, women are still regard as insignificant, here's a quote from the Mail Online...

The England Cricket Board’s attempts to promote women’s cricket have not been helped by Edgbaston’s hosting of a T20 double-header. England men play India on September 7 on the final day of their dismal tour, after the England women’s team have taken on South Africa.

Yet the women’s match has not been mentioned on the tickets. Warwickshire blame the omission on uncertainty about the opponents, although the ECB say the women’s match was first discussed in February.

Obviously Edgbaston want us to believe that the tickets were printed in January. I make no comment but just ask you, dear reader, "how likely is that?"

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