Ladies First

The experience of playing cricket in India is unmatched, in its jam-packed stadiums, with deafening noise, thunderous applause and partisan silences. Most international cricketers are awestruck by the Colisseum-like atmosphere and yet there are Indian internationals who have never walked out on to the pitch to screaming fans. But on June 5 they may get a chance to know exactly how that feels.

Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Jaya Sharma, Sulakshana Naik, Preeti Dimri and Rumeli Dhar are the six Indians that are part of the Asia XI, which will take on an Africa XI in a Twenty20 game in Bangalore. The fixture by itself will not have fans screaming, but that it's being played as a curtain-raiser to a men's Twenty20 - featuring Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik and S Sreesanth, the Indian fast bowler - on the same day should get crowds in, at least for the second half of the game.

To be honest, the men's XI is hardly made up of Asia's best players of the Twenty20 format and, with only one Indian in the squad, it's unlikely that spectators will fill all 55,000 seats of the Chinnaswamy Stadium. But for women's cricket, the idea of a curtain-raiser is a conscientious attempt to promote the game.

You may be forgiven for thinking that it is an awful lot like a struggling band getting the chance to open for mega stars. Whether it will succeed is difficult to say, for this is a one-off match between two sides seen infrequently on the international circuit. But as an idea, it could catch on like coloured clothing did. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that it has already caught on.

South Australia women first played a Twenty20 against Queensland at Adelaide right before the men's state sides played their game. In fact, the first-ever Twenty20 international was also played by women, when England hosted New Zealand at Hove in August 2004. This year, Warwickshire and Somerset are planning two women's games as curtain-raisers to men's games.

Gill McConway, the ECB executive director for women's cricket who was instrumental in organising the county games, has now approached Durham to host a Twenty20 international between England and South Africa in 2008. She is optimistic of seeing it through and feels that this shorter version of the game is the best vehicle to promote the women's game.

"Get traditional supporters to watch women's cricket and once they do this they will be hooked," she said in an email interview with Cricinfo. "The most successful women's sports in this country to get coverage are the sports that are able to compete at the same venue at the same time as the men - for example tennis, swimming and athletics. We must push to ensure where ever possible women's cricket gets this sort of opportunity and Twenty20 cricket is the perfect format to achieve this."

So when the Asian Cricket Council met for its annual general body meeting last year and decided to specially focus on developing the women's game, the curtain-raiser idea held great appeal. Shubhangi Kulkarni, the chairperson of the Asian Cricket Council's women's committee, echoes McConway's thoughts and disagrees that the women's game might not be suited to the power-hitting fest that has made the Twenty20 format so popular.

"What spectators want is for something to happen all the time," said Kulkarni, who is also the convenor of the BCCI's women's committee. "People don't have the time to spend a whole day watching cricket and if we want more countries to play cricket, then Twenty20 is ideal."

The Indians - except Jaya Sharma - are the only ones in the two squads to have played a Twenty20 international before and its novelty, appealing to both players and spectators, may not be able to take away from the fact that most of the squad members have not played any competitive cricket in a very long time. But despite the fact that it's important what quality of cricket they put on display, it's of far greater consequence to the women's game that they will be seen by regular fans.

Since Twenty20 internationals are becoming regular fixtures of bilateral men's series, it can only be hoped that the boards of each country latch on to the curtain-raiser idea and let women get a taste of international cricket.

An interesting aside to this game is that there are two Tanzanians and two Ugandans in the XI. Is cricket seen as a women's sport in these countries, or are the other African men's sides not competitive enough for their players to make a composite XI? Also, the Pakistan women in the squad will be playing in front of both men and women - the Pakistan board had earlier announced that men, unaccompanied by the family, would be denied entry to watch the women's World Cup qualifiers to be hosted in November.