In her first 926 days of international cricket, Mithali Raj played only seven ODIs. It’s been a career speckled with vast gaps. And now, it’s been over a year since one of the greatest batters of all time has played an ODI, for no fault of hers.
Snehal Pradhan draws attention to a series of shocking stats in her column for Hindustan Times. Read the full article here: Breaks by default galore in the time of Mithali Raj.
Look at the infographic. Look at Mithali’s career, the gaps and the busy periods, and remember who was in charge of Indian cricket when, and you have a powerful story. It tells you just how much the administration of the time cared, and cares. Look at their actions, not their promises … [Female cricketers] are performers, in an age-limited occupation, and they’ve lost a year, not entirely due to the pandemic. When they retire, we will judge their careers by their results and records. But who will count the gaps that were no fault of theirs?
Equal Hue recommedation
The Equal Hue report, in the section on Elite performance, pointed out how in the past a spurt of matches used to be organised in time for a big event such as a World Cup, with plenty of gaps between these periods. While this appeared to have changed in recent times, the past year has seen schedules revert to the old, unfortunate pattern, as Snehal’s article again makes clear.
Our report suggested that the BCCI work with the ICC to create and publise a women’s Future Tours Programme, as it exists for the men. We said:
An FTP will give structure to women’s cricket, provide clarity on the schedule, and help support staff, players and the media to prepare with a medium to long-term view.