BOOK
REVIEW
TITLE: THE FIRE BURNS BLUE-A HISTORY OF WOMEN’S
CRICKET IN INDIA
AUTHORS:
KARUNYA KESHAV & SIDHANTA PATNAIK
PUBLISHER:
WESTLAND SPORTS, 2018
PRICE:
Rs.799/- HARDBACK
India’s Women’s Cricket Comes Of Age: The
Power Of Volume & Passion
The 2017 World Cup,
and India playing in the finals, was the moment when Indian Women’s Cricket finally
arrived. That it was mostly a gender stereotype that kept this sport from being
taken seriously as something women could excel in is a sad thing. India has
been gradually led, by the example of other cricketing nations, to offer it
patronage and facilities.
Similarly, other sports such as Wrestling, Shooting, Boxing,
Kabbadi, Fencing, Tennis, Badminton,
even Athletics and Gymnastics, in which
Indians are making their mark consistently now, are also joining in on the
benefits and national prominence at last.
India did not win Gold at the 2017 tourney, missing it
narrowly, as it went to England, but they did win Silver, at the semi-finals,
beating the Australian Women’s Team. India
had reached this high once before, in 2005, losing the final, as it happened,
to Australia that time.
Subsequently, officialdom seems to have made up its mind. The
BCCI, that has been sponsoring international tours since 2006, got to work to
turn the women’s team into more than the forever “feisty underdog”. The women’s
annual retainer was tripled to Rs. 50 lakhs a year for the top players. TV
rights for both men’s and women’s cricket, a lucrative game changer since the
eighties and nineties, were sold for thousands of crores for a five year
contract starting in 2018. India, said an ICC survey, wanted to also see their
women cricketers playing. Coaches and other support staff were given two year
contracts.
In the 12 months after 23rd July 2017, the
Indian Women’s Team played nine ODIs with four wins and five losses. In T 20,
India won eight of fifteen international matches played. But it lost the Asia
Cup for the first time since 2004, to a resurgent Bangladesh.
There are shortcomings. India is still struggling to
unearth new power hitters even as star player Mithali Raj is the most-capped
player and most-capped captain in ODIs in 2018. There are other champions like Harmanpreet
Kaur, who was the the first to sign up
with an overseas T 20 League (Sydney Thunder for the Women’s Big Bash League)
in 2016.
And Jhulan Goswami, who has captured 300 international wickets through
her career so far.
Team culture and cohesion too needs to be worked on. But
how long, in the era of the fitness and coordination of a Virat Kohli led men’s
team, will it take before the women’s team too become world-beaters?
It stands to reason that Women’s Cricket should forge ahead
to become world champions as training, skill, talent, new bench strength and
fitness are being emphasized like never before.
Meanwhile, Indian men’s cricket has become the biggest
sports money-spinner in the world next to international soccer. This is
primarily due to the size of Indian audiences both at the stadium and on TV,
and, of course, the associated advertising revenues . That the male players are
now paid small fortunes for ODI, T20 and Test Cricket with grueling and busy
calendars, and earn much bigger sums via multiple endorsement deals organized
by sport star management firms, puts them on par with the big stars of the
silver screen.
The authors of this book Karunya Keshav, a former Wisden
and ICC reporter, and Sidhanta Patnaik, also an ICC reporter, have set out a
chronicle of the long struggle to establish Women’s Cricket in India from the
1970s onwards. It describes many memorable games and their highlights over the
years, the early stars and their considerable grit.
The first Women’s Cricket Clubs were set up in Mumbai,
Pune, and Chennai in 1971, when all
three places had different names and women’s cricket had to fight in the face
of low administrative support and funds crunches. The Indian Railways, with
their multiple railway colonies that spawned talent, were early sponsors of
Women’s Cricket teams.
Early pioneers of the sport included names like Diana
Eduljee who still plays an administrative part via the BCCI, and Shantha
Rangaswamy, India’s first Captain.
The
Fire Burns Blue reads for the most part like a cricket
commentary in the classic mould from the radio days of the fifties and sixties,
even though Women’s Cricket commenced only in the seventies. Here is a
description for the cricket fan from the last day of the second Test against
England at Jamshedpur in 1995 - “ India
needed someone to play a few bold strokes at the top before the ball got older
and started to grip the surface”.
And another excerpt, from March 2018, by which time Women’s
Cricket was a recognizable force that
puts things in perspective - “In a room full
of people that matter, Diana, in her typical dark trousers, flats, and
loose, printed shirt, is the only woman. Three members of the Indian team,
Mithali, Jhulan and Harmanpreet, who have been playing a T20I tri-series in the
city, walk in eventually. They’re here to receive honorary Cricket Club of
India (CCI) life memberships following India’s run in the World Cup – it’s a
privilege few can afford or are eligible for and the CCI makes sure they realize
it. The three, still in their India jerseys after a long hot afternoon of
training, drag Diana into the commemorative photograph with them. They know
they wouldn’t be here, playing cricket, earning accolades, if it hadn’t been
for their senior. Four decades before, she was tonking balls and stereotypes on
this very ground. Their honour was hers as well.”
(912
words)
For:
The Sunday Pioneer AGENDA BOOKS
January
5th, 2019
Gautam
Mukherjee
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