A winning attitude

Women's cricket. It used to be that hardly anyone watched women's cricket games. Everyone wanted to catch ‘the boys’ in action whereever they played, be it Colombo or Sydney or anywhere in between.

But the recent Women's Cricket World Cup changed all that. Indeed, the tournament helped change many perceptions with regard to the women's game.

The excellent showing by the Sri Lankan women's team played no small part in this shift in perceptions and attitudes.

The tournament showed that women's cricket could be just as exciting and unpredictable as the men's game. When the intrepid Sri Lankan girls beat the English women's team at their own game, it signalled the arrival of the Lankan lionesses on the world cricketing arena. It also showed that the women's teams could be just as good as the men's teams in terms of playing style, the zest to win and mass appeal.

Our thanks must go to the ICC for popularising the women's game through World Cups and other regular tournaments. Worldwide television coverage via ESPN/Star Sports has made a big difference. Many people I know who would not even watch the men's team in action were glued to their television sets specially during the games featuring the Sri Lankan women's team. This is a great turning point for women's cricket.

Now that the names of our women cricketers are becoming familiar to viewers, the Cricket Board should do a lot more to popularise women's cricket in the country. More mixed and girls schools should be given assistance to form girls’ teams and big matches on the lines of those held by the major boys’ schools should be conducted. That will help draw more girls to cricket. We already know how knowledgeable women are on cricket and getting them to play is the next logical step. However, cricket is an expensive sport and the schools will require financial assistance as well in addition to coaching help. The well-known cricket clubs too could have their own women's teams.

Compensation

There were reports that the members of the women's team received much less financial compensation than the members of the men's team. Now that our women's team has shown what they are capable of, that should not be the case in the future. They should be amply rewarded for their efforts on the field. The entire team should ‘go professional’ if possible, so that they would have more time for practices and tournaments. The Board should draw up more future tours for the women's team. Such an assurance and environment will encourage more girls to take up cricket and eventually turn it into a career.

Cricket may be the most popular sport in the country, but it is by no means the only pebble on the beach. Netball is perhaps the only sport played exclusively by women and Sri Lanka has done rather well in that sphere too. We are among the best teams in Asia when it comes to netball.

As for athletics, none can forget the Olympic performance of Susanthika Jayasinghe, who put us on the Olympic map for the first time in several decades. She also showed us that hailing from a rural area and school is no bar to performing and winning at the highest levels of the game. Indeed, more resources must be allocated to develop sports and sports facilities in rural schools with special attention focused on girls. Building swimming pools may be the ‘in’ thing for schools countrywide, but sports such as athletics can be done with much less capital expenditure. School authorities should dwell seriously on this matter.

Among the other sports that women can excel in are soccer, volleyball, all indoor sports such as chess and carrom, gymnastics, combat sports, rugby (an emerging sport for women), tennis (some of the biggest names in world tennis are women), badminton, swimming (some of the best women swimmers in the country come from schools which do not even have pools) and cycling.

Like cricket, women's soccer is rapidly gaining popularity worldwide. This is another area our sports administrators should look at. There is a notion that women could do even better in terms of tactics and strategies on the football field, which paves the way for more exciting games. Again, authorities must do more to popularise football among schoolgirls. This generally applies to all the sports mentioned above.

Prejudices

There are instances when some parents discourage girl children from taking part in sports due to various reasons including studies even if the girls in question like sports. It is time to give up such prejudices and give a chance for all girls to pursue any sport that they may like at school or university level. Moreover, children need to play to develop their physical and mental faculties, a fact that has sadly been forgotten in the mad scramble for 24/7 tuition. Denying them formal or informal playtime is not a prudent step at all.

Besides, “Catch them Young” is a phrase often heard in sports circles. Some sports such as gymnastics are best taught and ingrained at a very young age, but for cricket and soccer a girl or boy can wait a bit longer.

Parents, teachers and principals should encourage girls who show exceptional talents in any given sport. They may go on to represent the country one day in their chosen sport and bring fame and honour to the Motherland.

Empowering girl children and women is often described as the fastest route to poverty alleviation and social development. We must empower them not only in terms of education (which is essential) but also in terms of sports.

That will lead to the creation of balanced individuals who could serve the society in a better way. Our women's cricket team has shown us the way in this regard. Even if they could not make it to the final, their courageous attitude won our hearts and made us proud as Sri Lankans. There indeed are many lessons that we can draw from their winning ways.