ICC Women's World Cup and Women's Cricket

[StinkyBoHoon]

I'm not entirely sure whether this will get much interest but I thought I'd give it a stab.

the women's world cup has just started. England, defending champs have lost their opener to Sri Lanka, by one wicket with a last ball six sealing it, rather a decent advert for the game.

because I'm doubtfull this will be able to survive as just a thread about the women's world cup I'm going to open this up as a general discussion about women's cricket as well.

will anyone be casting their eye over the results at the world cup? what do you make of it and could you ever see yourself following it more seriously should they make the jump up to playing more regular tests?

 

[puddleduck]

Bandwaggoning on the Puddleduck report are we

It was a good game of cricket, and I think the most interesting thing was how much Sri Lanka have improved in just a year since turning professional. They've not played much cricket at all in that time, but have clearly worked very hard at the basics of their game and the technique of their players.

Certainly it was evident that there was a large disparity between Katherine Brunt and the rest of the bowlers on both teams, but that will change over time I'm sure.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

I haven't seen that, good oh, link it here if actually if you want, might be a good idea to get a sort of womens cricket thread ticking over. Probably missed a good opportunity a couple of weeks ago with sarah taylor being selected for sussex's 2nd XI.

anyway, yeah, it does seem like boards are making a bit more effort to produce strong womens teams (except the.. well, guess) and whenever I've watched it I haven't found it to be lacking strong fundamentals and good play, unlike womens football (which incidently I believe could be made several thousand times better if they shaved about 20m off the width of the pitch and 40m off the length.) really, if the leading cricketer in the world a year or two back was 37 year old that's 5'4 it's obvious physique is not the be all and end all.

I'm going to make an effort to catch this if I can, noticed the scores have been a lot higher than past womens games, and whenever I've seen england's womens team play I do kinda think they'd beat our full mens team.

 

[puddleduck]

It's on the front page, so you can find it yourself

England definitely let themselves down in the field today, so I guess they've probably been training with the men's team recently...

Also don't think the captaincy was particularly great, but I am highly impressed with Brunt, seems a very natural bowler. Struggled a little with her line to the left handers, but her natural pitch and shape to the right hander was lovely to watch. Gave first slip a proper stare when she dropped a dolly off her early on, and gave the batsman a bit of a sendoff when she bounced her out haha Good to see

 

[MUFC1987]

I've always followed the England team and can probably name a few other cricketers from around the world, but that's about it. The timing of the matches mean I probably won't catch much of this World Cup though.

The one thing that I hope they start doing is making the boundaries smaller. Does nothing for the game having lots of 3s because they're playing on massive outfields (i.e. mens size games) bring them in and have more fun!

What was up with Taylor today anyway? Injured in some way I guess?

 

[sifter132]

Haven't seen any of this World Cup at all...but just thought I'd voice my support for the women's game. They play some good cricket.

 

[Owzat]

It's getting some mentions on BBC, but I tried to find a scorecard for the current game on BBC and couldn't.

Needs a bit more promotion, says it all that after the opening game they had SIX on the second day and are racing through the rounds. While I prefer something quicker than the men's football and cricket World Cup drag ons, this is going from one extreme to the other.

Regardless what the England team's coach suggests in terms of women playing county cricket, it shouldn't happen. Proper bowling would expose them, there'll always be some meathead male who sets out to "do her" and causes a woman a serious injury to show he's macho. If they score big runs it will be because the bowlers "went easy", if they get knocked over all the time they'll be laughed out of the game and before you know it we'll have quotas.

But anyway, I digress. Do wish they'd call the batswomen something other than "batters" though, it is not baseball................ Hows about "lady bats" or "bat ladies" or simply avoid the reference altogether?

 

[puddleduck]

They've kind of called themselves batters to avoid being called batladies, which just sounds ridiculous.

Couple of things for me to raise here. Firstly @MUFC, she had a slight hamstring niggle I believe and they wanted to avoid making it any worse. As for boundaries, the all run 3's have been somewhat countered by the incredibly quick outfields. Also look at Windies batter Taylor smashing 170 off 130 balls to show that quick scoring is more than feasible. Or even the Sri Lankan tank that smashed 56 off 30 odd balls against England.

Scoring rates are up in general, although the changes to fielders outside the ring have probably helped that.

@Owzatt. They link to cricinfo for the scorecards, but I agree that it's disappointing they don't provide their own. What is far more diappointing though is yet again the BCCI hampering cricket. Their chosen broadcasters Star Cricket are only showing games from one stadium. They should be working hard to maximise exposure, although it's not entirely their fault, I find it amazing how much they are starting to control in terms of focussing only on their potential profit margins.

A final point to raise, is the ridiculous nature of points carried through. England are in a position today where they are trying not to chase the Windies total too quickly as they would rather Windies qualified than Sri Lanka due to points carried forward. It's something the commentators and text have kept bringing up, yet as I've been telling the non-existant person next to me (or in my head) they've all completely missed the point! Windies NRR is so far ahead of the Sri Lankan one, and since India need to beat Sri Lanka to ensure it comes down to the NRR, that regardless of any of this England would still have qualified alongside Windies and India. So I would suggest the commentators and research done for this is substandard. Despite the strides the whole game has made towards professionalism, clearly there is still much that can be done!

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With regards to the cricket again. Worrying for England that Katherine Brunt went off injured. She's comfortably the key strike bowler for England and deservedly the top bowler in women's cricket. If she's injured for the Australia game next up, it'll make things a lot harder.

 

[icyman]

@Owzatt. They link to cricinfo for the scorecards, but I agree that it's disappointing they don't provide their own. What is far more diappointing though is yet again the BCCI hampering cricket. Their chosen broadcasters Star Cricket are only showing games from one stadium. They should be working hard to maximise exposure, although it's not entirely their fault, I find it amazing how much they are starting to control in terms of focussing only on their potential profit margins.

Star Cricket [ESS] is the ICC approved broadcaster for all their events till 2015. Actually, I wouldn't fault ESS given that the stadiums at which these games are played lack facilities. Apart from the Brabourne Stadium and the one in Cuttack, the other grounds don't even have media boxes. They are those sort of grounds where a University XI would play its games.

If this WC was played in any other country, at least the well known grounds would have been selected for the same.

 

[puddleduck]

What a cracking game of cricket that was. Shame England lost, but they've only themselves to blame. Even if the umpiring was shockingly bad, there were still far too many poor shots in the first 10 overs of the innings when the ball was going to be moving.

Any young and tall members on here might want to check out the new Aussie quick bowler. She'll almost certainly be on the front cover of the Australian sports illustrated at some point soon! Her wicket to remove Jenny Gunn was classic fast bowling, bouncer followed by a yorker. Already touches 70mph and she's only 17, doesn't even turn 18 until December so she should easily end up the quickest female bowler in cricket at the moment.

Yeah I can't help but think India have done very little to help the women's game be promoted in terms of exposure. Which is a shame, as it's come a long way in the last year or two alone. Also very strange that they made all games start at 9am, where quite clearly an extra hour later start would have taken the dew factor out of the equation, as it's played a massive part so far (England having won the toss really should have won but they threw it away as much as Australia did well).

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

well, that's a bit unfair to "India". the indian womens cricket team has consistently been among the top 4 and was a lot more widely covered, it's everyone's favourite comic book villain that's wrecking it. the BCCI took over in 2006 (in 2005 they were world cup finalists) after the ICC took control of the womens game.

good, on topic, rant by ex-captain http://www.espncricinfo.com/women/content/story/602609.html

 

[puddleduck]

Sorry yes I did mean the BCCI of course. The Indian team as always conducts itself with a lot of respect for their opponents and with plenty of pride on the pitch.

Was a shame they crashed out, but also good to see new blood in the likes of Sri Lanka making progress.

 

[sifter132]

Any young and tall members on here might want to check out the new Aussie quick bowler. She'll almost certainly be on the front cover of the Australian sports illustrated at some point soon! Her wicket to remove Jenny Gunn was classic fast bowling, bouncer followed by a yorker. Already touches 70mph and she's only 17, doesn't even turn 18 until December so she should easily end up the quickest female bowler in cricket at the moment.

Holly Ferling. Australia v England, Women's World Cup 2013, Mumbai : Holly Ferling overcomes her nerves to down England | Cricket News | ICC Women's World Cup | ESPN Cricinfo

She was replacing the lovely Ellyse Perry...she can get up around 75mph/120kph as well. Could make a great pairing in future given Perry is only 22 years old.

 

[puddleduck]

Yeah sure, not like I posted a match report on the front page or anything

Apparently Perry had a stomach upset, but the two of them bode very well for Australia. Should have the dominant pace attack in women's cricket for the next decade. Definitely the area they're still most ahead of everyone else. In unhelpful conditions they actually have two bowlers who look capable of taking wickets regardless.

One other thing to mention is Jess Cameron fielding at short cover for most of the middle overs was sensational. Barely anything made it past her. In fact much like the men's side their fielding was pretty excellent throughout.

 

[Left_Hander]

That Australia/England game was extraordinary! I didn't think Australia could defend that total, shame I missed the end of it though.

Puddleduck, you're right about Ferling's wicket. That was brilliant fast bowling. I saw it live and it hooped in the air. Gunn had no idea, it was almost comical, especially considering the circumstances of the game.