I had been watching the highlights of the ICC Women’s World Cup Match last Sunday, 22nd March, on Star Sports. England beat New Zealand by four wickets at Sydney, Australia to win the women’s ICC World Cup for the third time.

India had beaten defending champions Australia by three wickets in a playoff to finish third in the ICC Women’s World Cup Cricket at Bankstown Oval in Sydney on last Saturday, 21st March.

While watching the game and the fairer sex playing just as well as their male counterparts, a few questions came in my mind. Why is women’s cricket not as popular as men’s cricket?

Cricket is the most popular game of India today. We can see every glimpse of the game in our colony, city, state, country and even in the world. Cricket is played by everyone.. be a 5-year old child or 65-year old man...likewise we have women’s cricket also but its not given that much importance as men’s cricket. A question may arise - why the gap? Do we see any justified reason behind it...”a stupendous performance by Master Blaster Sachin, Sachin got out making just 10″ but do we really know even the names of our women players..the answer is big NO...why??

The Indian women’s cricket team played their first Test match in 1976/7, when they drew with the West Indies in a six-match series. They performed better than expected in the last Women’s Cricket World Cup, reaching the finals but then losing to Australia. Later in 2005 they won their second Women’s Asia Cup, played in Pakistan. That tournament featured the first ever match between the Indian and Pakistani women’s teams. They had won the Asia Cup on 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008. They reached the semi finals in 1997 and 2000 World Cup Tournaments.

They toured England in 2006, winning the Test series 1-0, winning the Twenty20 international, but losing the ODI series 4-0. The captain of the team is Jhulan Goswami.

The Indian women’s cricket team has a much lower profile than the men’s team. For all national women’s cricket teams, the female players are paid much less than their male counterparts, and the women’s teams do not receive as much popular support or recognition as the men’s team. They may play as well as their male counterparts do, sometimes perhaps even better, but still the women’s teams have a less packed schedule compared to men’s teams and play fewer matches.

I think it’s time the world sat back and noticed the game of cricket played ever so finely by the so called “weaker sex” by the dominated males of the world. More reviews on T.V. and newspapers would sure make Women’s Cricket as popular as ever.