In A League of Their Own

Caught up with the euphoria of the Indian contingent following up its wonderful Commonwealth Games performance with a best-ever medal tally at the Asian Games, not many of us remembered the fact that Cricket was making its debut in the Asian Games. A cricket crazy nation like India would have remembered this, had the Indian team been participating. Owing to 'other commitments', neither the women's cricket team nor their male counterparts made it to the games. Not even a second-rung team of junior players turned up. Possibly due to this, most of us didn't find the time to keep track of which 'amateur' team trumped over the other. 

A Neytiri-like depiction of a female Pakistani cricketer. Source: The Express Tribune

The news that many of us ended up missing out on was this: the Pakistan women's cricket team won the gold medal in the women's cricket category. For a nation ravaged by floods, violence, terror, 'pending economic catastrophe' and an embarrassing expose about members of its men's cricket team involved in spot fixing, this gold medal came as a healing balm of sorts. Indeed, President Asif Ali Zardari termed the victory as "as a gift to the nation riding on a series of crises".

With the Indian women's team, a strong contender for the Gold medal missing out, it was an easier task for the Pakistani women. The finals was a one-sided affair, with the Pakistani women routing their Bangladeshi counterparts with a ten-wicket win. 

These women come from a country, which like its neighbour India, would rather concentrate on the mediocre performances of its men than on the victories of its women. India would rather discuss Ravindra Jadeja than Jhulan Goswami. Pakistan too follows similar yardsticks. Hailing from a conservative society, playing a sport considered 'the gentleman's game' came with a whole gamut of challenges. In the words of Sana Mir, captain of the Pakistani team, “There is always TV coverage when the men’s team plays in Pakistan because it is huge, but you never see us playing on the big screen. I hope our triumph will change people’s attitude towards the game back home. Parents, in my view, would feel more confident in allowing their daughters to take up the sport.”

And that is exactly what one hopes would come out of this victory for Pakistan. It is one thing to watch Chak De! India and drown in patriotism or feminism and cheer for ‘the girls’. It is yet another thing to constantly and passionately keep track of the girls’ games and cheer them on.

The Indian women’s cricket team finished as runner-ups in the 2005 World Cup, an event that made news for that week at most and was re-telecast when the men weren’t playing any matches or when it was a slow news week. I hope that this victory of the Pakistani women’s team will have a more substantial impact on society, motivating many young women to play the sport that they love, without inhibitions. It is time we really gave a ‘Chak De!’ to our women in sports. 

Recommended Reading:

'Cricket is not a Gentleman's Game'

Pakistan women win historic gold at Asian Games