It is the same old story as Air India, Railways dominate

A two horse race is never a lot of fun. Only when you have more than a few teams vying for glory does the word competition assume any meaning. While men's cricket at the international level, and ODIs in particular, seem to have level playing fields, the same cannot be said of women's cricket in India. For many years now, it has been a case of Air India and Indian Railways being the cream of the lot, with all other sides battling it out for third place. The Indira Priyadarshini Champions Trophy Women's Tournament being played at Kolkata at present is no exception.

With the league phase completed, Air India and Indian Railways have made it to the final yet again. In the semi-final of this limited overs tournament, Railways stormed past Andhra Pradesh, beating them by 185 runs. At the other end of the draw, Air India brushed aside hosts Bengal, notching up a 99 run victory.

While it is true that Air India and Indian Railways are the only sides that train throughout the year, the issues are more complex than just that. Unlike men's cricket, the financial scene in women's cricket is almost non-existent. Playing a match for the country would pay a member of the men's team at least a lakh of rupees. No such reward is forthcoming to the women. Securing sponsors to send the Indian team to the CricInfo Women's World Cup 2000 was a Herculean task, and one that the Women's Cricket Association of India could not successfully complete.

As a result of the complete paucity of funds, women taking to the game are forced to begin looking beyond the cricket field even as they embark on their careers. And this means jobs. With Indian Railways being the only institution that offers jobs on cricketing merit, the cream of women's cricketers are straightaway recruited there. Further, Air India enroll cricketers on contract and have even made exceptions and signed up full time employees.

With a majority of the talent being taken away, this leaves state and zonal teams with little. Also consider the fact that a state team consists of players coming from all parts. This makes it geographically impossible for a team to hold regular practice sessions. Major tournaments are sometimes preceded by camps, but this is neither guaranteed nor effective enough.

A look at the Air India and Indian Railways teams tells its own story. Of the 15 strong contingent that played for India in the CricInfo Women's World Cup 2000, 14 are in either of the two big teams.

In the semifinals of the Indira Priyadarshini Champions Trophy it was former Air India batsman Mithali Raj who shone for Railways, cracking a quickfire 79 (51 balls, 10 fours, 2 sixes) and her opponents in the final will be hoping she won't do a repeat. Also coming good for Railways were Rajani Venugopal (69) and off spinning allrounder Rupanjali Shastri (45 runs, 27 balls, 5 fours, 1 six). For Air India, a team that lost several players to Railways this year, Anju Jain (47) and Smitha Harikrishna (51) took the honours.

The final will be played at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday, 15 April.