Cricket has been a much-loved sport for very many years, particularly in countries such as the UK and Australia. However, traditionally, much like football the sport has been played professionally predominately by men. Over recent years people have started to demand a change in professional sport and carve a way for women to be much more involved. It is estimated that around 30% of Australian cricket players are now women. So, not quite a fair divide but a massive increase in what there once was – but what is causing women’s cricket in Australia to take off in such a big way?
The Big Bash League
The Big Bash League is a massive Australian Twenty20 cricket league that takes place every year. Every year when it happens people scour the internet for things like BBL live score 2021 so they can keep up to date with what teams are doing well and who the stand out players are. In the grand scheme of things, the women’s Big Bash League is a new tournament but that doesn’t detract from how popular it is. It was launched by Belinda Clarke, a former Australian National team captain and the first matches took place in 2015-2016, in exact alignment with the men’s Big Bash League games.
Women’s Cricket Salaries
Much like other sports, traditionally men have been paid more than women counterparts, even for playing at the same level. Australian Cricket was keen to change this and the Australian National team gave their female players a huge pay rise in 2017. With an aim of eventually giving them an average pay of $210,000 a year, they were initially awarded a pay increase to $179,000 – an increase of $100,000 a year. This much fairer pay has made the sport much more accessible and exciting to women who may have been interested before but felt the pay structure was unfair. With sport across the board becoming much more accessible it makes sense that teams work hard to ensure that all genders are paid the same for similar sporting levels.
Internet Coverage
It might sound strange but social media is certainly helping the popularity of women’s sports increase. Teenagers and young women are always looking for role models and tend to look up to the people they see in newspapers, magazines and on the TV. Currently, women’s cricket doesn’t get the coverage it should get on TV and as such, the talented players may not have grabbed the attention of the younger generation. However, thanks to social media players are able to interact with people online and get the attention of people that may not previously have noticed them. By sharing their talents online they are able to reach a new audience and this helps them and the sport, in general, to grow in popularity. On top of this, sporting matches being streamed online means that they’re much more accessible to those wanting to watch – you no longer have to be able to tune into Australian TV channels to be able to watch things such as the Women’s Big Bash League cricket matches.
Cricket, in general, is increasing in popularity, especially as people tune in to watch things such as the IPL which they may not have been able to before. There are also some fantastic female cricket commentators hitting the headlines. This proves to women that a career in professional sports is not out of their league should they want to work hard enough to get it. This has certainly helped the popularity of the sport, as more people tune in to see what the future generation of female cricketers has to offer.
