Pity hardly anyone saw the Women's World Cup
Peter Bartlett, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald , laments the poor reception for the Women's World Cup though the tournament witnessed some great cricket.
What is it about women's cricket? This is, after all, the game's showcase. It can only be the poor public perception and, alas, perception is everything. It is entertaining but try telling that to anyone, let alone convincing them to come along.
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In women's sport, various codes have been unfairly branded as enclaves of hard-nosed lesbians. My first response to that is: who cares? However, it simply doesn't apply. Just as we tell our kids not to generalise with nations, the same applies to sporting codes. Maybe women's cricket still suffers from a lingering element of that perception. Good on Cricket Australia and Cricket NSW for using the likes of Ellyse Perry to try to break that stereotype. The women deserve more respect.
Siddhartha Talya is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo