January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
Were our women like lambs to the slaughter?
Is the cricket board wasting money by spending it on the women's programme? Would its efforts be better concentrated on revitalizing the men's programme?
David Gibbons (cricket fan): Absolutely not. This is the first forage at this level by the women's team, and they should not have to suffer at home financially as well as abroad. If anything, they should get a bigger slice of that pie.
Consider that currently there isn't even a women's league on the island and that our national squad has to make do with infrequent matches against junior boys' teams.
Women's sports, particularly women's team sports, historically hasn't gotten much attention either from the public or the media and that's something that should change when you consider the opportunities available to promising young women in sports such as basketball, soccer or athletics.
George Holdipp (cricket commentator): If the women want to play cricket then they deserve financial support. However, I would prefer to see our women playing softball as Bermuda has a rich legacy of producing world class female softball teams.
I believe government should take the initiative by promoting softball at school level. Do you remember the days of the 'Big Blue Machine?"
Saleem Mukuddem (former national team player): The ladies team earned the right to be there after qualifying from the Americas region. Let's be real. If Bermuda struggles to find players for its men's team then how are they possibly going to find women for the ladies team. Money should be spent on setting up a domestic structure for them first and then if that proves successful after a number of years get them to play internationally.
You cannot simply start at the top. Cricket should be played by all sexes.
I hope they enjoy the experience good or bad, make friends and appreciate what the country of South Africa has to offer.
James Whittaker (sports journalist): If there are only 25 women who play the sport on the island, no domestic league and no youth league , then does it really make that much sense to compete at the World Cup?
You can't blame the women involved - they're already being trashed around the world - but how much can really be learned from such an obvious mis-match.
People will no doubt say - they had no chance against a team like South Africa. True. But to lose in four balls?
If the ICC, which funded the trip, and the BCB wants to invest in the women's game shouldn't a proper league, girls cricket in schools and international competition against countries of a similar standard. come first?
Sending them to play South Africa seems unfair and possibly a misdirection of funds.
Sam Stevens (sports journalist): James and I are in total agreement. It's a massive cliche to say that you've got to learn to walk before you can run, but with regards to the development of women's cricket on the island it undeniably rings true.
The BCB are under an obligation to promote and develop the sport nationally. As such, if there are enough women that want to play competitively, then the Board are duty bound to accomodate and help them. But sending them off like lambs to the slaughter like this has to go down as a spectacular miscalculation.
By paying for them to become international laughing stocks, the BCB has fundamentally undermined the development of women's cricket on the island.
It might get very little attention in the mainstream media, but most large cricketing nations take women's cricket very seriously - and have done so for decades. All Test-playing nations have well established county/provincial competitions for women, while most, if not all top-class female players have been playing proper male league cricket since they were youngsters.
Rather than waste our money on this pointless flight of fancy, the BCB should have invested first of all in a tangible, effective and coherent infrastructure for our women.
If we ever did get this in place, then perhaps we could start thinking about competing in events like the World Cup ten or 20 years later.
To try and compete at the very pinnacle of the sport before even the most basic ingredients for success are in place is - and has been proven to be - sheer folly.
Lorenzo Tucker (Cricket analyst): You have to look at the history. Canada was set to receive a free pass to the World Cup qualifier as the only recognized country in the Americas with a woman's cricket programme. Bermuda objected to this and so it was decided that Bermuda and Canada have a three game playoff to decide who would represent the Americas region.
It's now scramble time to find players and prepare them in a matter of months for this ad-hoc qualification for the right to go to the World Cup qualification tournament.
The majority of these girls have to learn the cricket basics of grip, stance, rules, fielding positions, catching, etc. from scratch.
It was clearly expected that Canada would defeat Bermuda because they have a women's programme in most the universities as well as a bigger pool of players to pick from.
Low and behold Bermuda win the series 2-1 and now they are thrust upon the world stage not having a women's league, programme or plan in place. I believe the saying is careful what you ask for!
It's now scramble time to prepare for the qualifiers where they will meet test playing teams with infrastructures already in place.
The women now compete in the summer Under-16 boys league and the evening league and start to improve.
They even secured a few wins in the U16 programme.
They have a successful women's training camp in Trinidad and play in the Americas tournament to see how far they have come losing to Canada in the finals.
They have worked hard and put in many hours of sacrifice.
They have truly come a long way. Alan Douglas and Peter Philpot have done a remarkable job in a short period of time.
In the qualifers we drew fourth ranked South Africa as our first opponent, who demonstrated that there are no shortcuts or substitute for experience or exposure, which will only take time to gain.
The Bermuda team is clearly miles behind internationally, but the journey must begin with a single step and they're taking that step and learning those lessons in this tournament. Ladies, enjoy the World Cup qualifiers, take something positive from the matches and look to improve in each game. The end result is of little importance.
DG: Do we know how much of the funding goes towards the women's programmes overall?
The general consensus thus far seems to be that whatever the amount is, it's being misdirected towards pushing a (underprepared?) senior women's team to compete in international events and not building a women's programme from the ground up.
JW: Makes sense. If, as Lorenzo says, you're trying to learn the correct grip (unsuccessfully by the looks of some of the pictures) months before competing in the World Cup qualifiers, something's not quite right.
It's a difficult one for the board because if they declined to take part they'd probably get slammed and miss out on some ICC funding, but it is strange to see a women's cricket team trying to qualify for the World Cup before women's cricket has even been established as a sport in this country.
LT: It's true. The call was made out to any woman interested - previous cricket experience not required.
I agree, normally you teach basics at the U10, U13 and U16 leagues and progress to the senior ranks. All this had to be done in a space of months so you have to expect they will struggle.
SM: That being the case what did we expect possible outcomes could or would be. Maybe it is Bermuda's cricket administrators who are ARROGANT and/or Naive to think that they can do this.
Take women off the street try and teach them the basics overnight and send them out to play in World Cup qualifiers.
The ladies team did well to beat Canada to qualify but they should have played stronger opposition a few months back.
But that would have clashed with their basic skill training. That's poor vision if you ask me.[[In-content Ad]]
Comments:
You must login to comment.