What did T20 World Cup tell us about the current status of women’s cricket?

Women’s tournaments still an afterthought for ICC

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has been in a fix with this T20 World Cup ever since the troubles started in Bangladesh. They had enough time to make contingency plans, find a new venue, and put all their efforts into creating a T20 World Cup worthy of the present and future of women’s cricket. 

The ICC had previously announced its commitment to prioritising the women’s game and focusing on its accelerated growth until 2032. They also introduced equal prize money for its men’s and women’s World Cups, meaning that the New Zealand women would have earned USD 2.34 million, which is a massive 134% more than the 2023 edition. 

However, when it came to organising the tournament, it all felt like last-minute scurrying to get the tournament started. The only place the tournament was marketed well was on Instagram reels, and sadly, that was visible in the empty stands during the entire tournament, including the World Cup final. The warm up games weren’t even televised, and the games starting at 2 PM UAE time suffered traction issues even on platforms where people regularly follow the game. 

As far as the accelerated growth of women’s cricket till 2032 is concerned, it seems like the ICC has put all their eggs in the basket of cricket and the cricketers themselves. Unfortunately, the World Cup wasn’t great in that regard. 

UAE isn’t the best destination for the women’s game 

Power and six-hitting in women’s cricket have improved leaps and bounds over the last few years. And one doesn’t need to see the records for that. Just watch the highlights of any women’s T20 league, and you’ll see quite a few big shots in that package. 

Teams have regularly threatened scores of 150 plus. Even Sri Lanka, a team not known for their big hitters except Chamari Athapaththu, recently chased 166 in the Women’s Asia Cup final. However, in this T20 World Cup, the highest total successfully chased was 144 by the West Indies when Hayley Matthews, Qiana Joseph and Deandra Dottin made Sharjah their playground.

The reason is obvious — the pitches, irrespective of the effort put into making them conducive to stroke play, remained slow, and the batters were left to generate a lot of pace in their shots through their own. With straight boundaries being 70 metres plus, a rarity in women’s cricket, big hits down the ground were really hard to come by. 

That affected the overall interest in the tournament, as it remained largely low-scoring and didn’t reflect the increments made in the batting abilities of women batters across the teams. Moreover, the full member nations have played hardly any women’s cricket in the UAE, so players are largely unaware of the conditions and how to adapt successfully. 

The gap between the Big Three and others is reducing

The last week or so hasn’t been the usual hunky-dory domination for the Big Three (England, Australia, and India) in cricket, and women’s cricket was no different as none of the three behemoths made the final of the T20 World Cup. 

Not only that, the manner in which New Zealand defeated India, West Indies defeated England, and South Africa trumped Australia, it just shows that teams ranked below have gotten the skill to not only compete with these sides but also dominate them in games. 

While mostly these results can be attributed to strong performances from one-woman army cricketers like Dottin, Wolvaardt - the rise of cricketers from non-Big Three nations like Eden Carson, Karishma Ramharack, Harshitha Samarawickrama, Muneeba Ali, and even Orla Prendergast (for Ireland), has shown that the talent pool is diversifying at a quick rate. These rising stars will be regulars in prominent franchise teams very soon and will help their national teams grow with their experience. 

Moreover, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Ireland's recent victories have also come after their cricket boards have provided them with consistent game time, which earlier wasn’t regularly available. While Pakistan and Sri Lanka might not have done well in the World Cup, there is a lot of serendipity surrounding their future, and that’s more than what we can bargain from an afterthought of a tournament. 

Where’s the power in hitting 

23 matches, 39 sixes. 

If I just gave these two numbers to you, you’d probably think I’m telling you ODI numbers. In the last T20 World Cup in South Africa, less than two years ago, 57 sixes were hit in just as many games. 

Yes, the pitches had a huge role to play, but women batters need to find a way to impart more power on the ball through their shots, especially against spinners. Crease movement data from this World Cup shows that countries other than Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa, and West Indies have failed to utilise the crease effectively to find boundaries. 

Moreover, the Asian teams need to start playing more reverse sweeps, as a strong case can be against them not utilising this shot which is being used prolifically by batters from Australia, New Zealand and England to combat spin. 

Yes, the pitches were definitely tough. But the way most of these teams batted didn’t reflect their own growth in terms of boundary hitting, and that remains a big blemish on the quality of cricket in the tournament. 

Where’s the fielding focus

111 drop catches in 23 games. That’s almost five drops every single game! That’s how bad the fielding efforts were in this World Cup. Even the Australian women, arguably the best fielding side overall, dropped two catches every game on average this tournament. 

Those numbers are not only abysmal, but they also show that fielding is something that each and every single women’s team need to pay close attention to, even the Australians (as they weren’t close to their usual standards). 

However, that’s where the problem gets complicated a bit, as more than half of the games played in the tournament were played under lights, where catching becomes a different proposition altogether. Add to it the ring lights at Dubai, the difficulty level goes even higher, as most women teams (including India), didn’t use to play a lot of night games until a few years ago. Sides like Scotland, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and West Indies hardly even get them now. So, the lack of experience of fielding under lights is certainly a factor in the abysmal number of drops seen this World Cup. 

However, that’s where cricket boards need to take a closer look at the situation, and put increased focus on fielding and fitness of their women’s team. Even fully professional teams like India keep changing their fielding coaches quite regularly, and that impacts the fielding development work done on players. Moreover, with more money coming to them gradually, women cricketers also need to specifically work on this aspect because not only it hampers the results for their team, but it also brings down the quality of cricket, which will further reduce the viewership in time. 

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