2013 Women's World Cup Preview

Women's cricket, as always struggling to attract coverage from the media, has been helped by a couple of attention grabbing moments in the past few weeks as final preparations have been put in place prior to the opening game at Mumbai tomorrow.

The Pakistan team looked unlikely to attend for security reasons as their base of operations was to be Mumbai but negotiations have saved a hole appearing in the draw and they will now play in Cuttack. Goodness knows what happens if they make it through to the super sixes, where a majority of the games will be played in Mumbai, the home of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Diana Edulji

The biggest pre-tournament detonation came from Diana Edulji, both a former captain and manager of India. In the home of the caste system, she claims that India's women cricketers are treated as second class citizens. Following an ICC edict in the mid 2005, all home cricket authorities had to take control and management of the women's game and promote the game among the women of their nation. In England and Australia, this has been done reasonably well, with financial and professional resources being put in place to support players who are still essentially amateurs and are not on centralised contracts. As a result, both countries dominate the women's game because they are better organised, better resourced and are supporting the game at the grass roots level.

Not so in India, according to Edulji. In the two weeks leading up to this home World Cup, India's players were being accommodated in a second rate hotel and were only moved into five star accommodation three days before the event ... on the same days as media interviews with the players were scheduled for the afternoon. It is common practice, says Edulji, for the players to walk to the ground on match day, as transport is not provided. The players often have to make their own arrangements for meals, even on match days and are paid less than the selectors and match referees (2500R or US$47 for a first class match).

Ratnakar Shetty

Her specific claims that women's cricket has second class status behind the men in India is further enhanced by two actions from the BCCI.

First, Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI's chief administrative officer said, when asked about Edulji complaints, said the board was giving women's cricket "adequate support". Ringing endorsement that! The second action was to inform the ICC that Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai - probably India's number one ground - was no longer available for the finals of the Women's World Cup. Why? Because the BCCI wanted it to be available for the local men's teams for the finals of the Ranji  and Irani Trophies in the domestic competitions.

"Such decisions are a clear statement to the cricket world that a damning gender bias exists in Indian Cricket."

Edulji's claims that women's cricket in India is dying seem well founded.

Welcome to India.

Sarah Taylor - best in the world

England start this tournament as overwhelming favourites. They have the class players and the depth to cover individual failures and they have the shrewd lady with ice in her veins, Charlotte Edwards. They also have the best player in the world, Sarah Taylor, whose recently expressed desire to play in men's games has attracted the usual round of low brow comment in newspapers and among their semi-literate clientele in bars across England and Australia. The fact is, such drool is a blind to the reality that she would handle the exercise extremely well and as Belinda Clark would have, she'd score plenty.

India have one outstanding trump amongst an otherwise ordinary side. Jhulan Goswami is a fearsome fast bowler in a country of spinners and even on her home dusty tracks, she will be a handful.

"New Zealand are the bolters to watch out for."

Runners up in the last World Cup, their current form is excellent, winning an exciting T20 series in Australia last week, where the first two games went right to the wire. They lost the first warm up game to India but then defended well against England to win with relative comfort. Sara McGlashan scored fifties in both games, with 88 from 90 balls against the title holders.

Lisa Sthalekar with bat or ball

Australia are logically the tournament's second favourite, following their win last year in the T20 World Cup. Back is former skipper Alex Blackwell and despite talk of retirement, the world's best allrounder, Lisa Sthalekar, has saddled up again. They won both of their warm up games comfortably, crushing West Indies and India. The batting top six look in dominant form, the bowlers steady and Sthalekar's habit of taking vital wickets and being a miser with runs continues.

Of the others, the West Indies will be the wild card. On their day, they can turn on exciting cricket capable of knocking the best over but whether they can time that day for a big match is another thing. Pakistan, Sri Lanka and South Africa remain among the minnows for now: South Africa's lack of success somewhat surprising as they enter their sixteenth year at the top level in the Women's game.

Its a youthful game. Very few players in this tournament are beyond thirty years of age, with India's Sulakshana Naik the eldest at 34, just shading Sri Lanka's Chamai Seneviratno by a week. Juliana Nero of the West Indies and Australia's Lisa Sthalekar are 33. The youngest is Shaquana Quintyne, 17 year old leg spinner from Barbados, who made her debut against Pakistan when only 15. Given the lack of contracts and survival by sponsorship, parental finances and personal hardship, its not hard to see why players have to leave cricket and get on with their life earlier than their male counterparts.

"Money has a way of squeezing the best from everything 

and leaving it bereft of its goodness."

Given this writers previous comments about the pathetic nature of media coverage this now very skilful and entertaining game attracts and the gender bias some have to endure from their own controlling authorities, its a wonder they play at all.

Perhaps the women understand and still experience something most of the men lost long ago ... the love of the game.

There will be no live continuous coverage on radio or television. ESPN Cricinfo will be providing live scores online and Fox/Austar will broadcast selective games but on replay. The World Cup commences tomorrow night with hosts India playing the West Indies at Mumbai. Australia's first game is against Pakistan at Cuttack on Friday.