New Delhi, Jun 28 (UNI) Indian fast bowler Shikha Pandey has come up with her suggestions like other cricketers on whether women's cricket needs any tweaks - like smaller balls or shorter pitches - to help it further flourish and attract more fans.
Shikha in a series of tweets on Saturday, said, "most of the ideas were ‘superfluous’ and asked not to change the very nature of the game in order to attract crowd.
In a recent ICC webinar held earlier this month New Zealand skipper Sophie Devine as well as Jemimah Rodrigues, Shikha, who boasts of 113 wickets from 104 matches, said, “I have been reading/ hearing a lot about the changes being suggested to help grow women’s cricket/make it a more attractive product. I personally feel most of the suggestions to be superfluous.”
As for reducing the length of the pitch from 22 yards, Pandey said: "An Olympic 100m female sprinter doesn't run 80m to win First place medal and clock the same timing as her male counterpart," she wrote. "So the whole 'decreasing the length of the pitch' for whatever reasons seems dubious."
Shikha appealed for patience, promising that it will only get better from here. “Please don’t bring the boundaries in! We have surprised you with our power-hitting in recent times, so remember, this is only the beginning; we will get better. Please have patience. We are skilled players, who are evolving.”
"Instead of "tinkering with rules or the very fabric of the game to attract an audience", Pandey said, "Growth can be achieved by marketing the sport well."
She also advocated more technology in the women's game. "Why not have DRS, Snicko, Hotspot, all of the technical acumen and live broadcast for every game that we play anywhere in the world."
"Please, don't compare women's sport, women's cricket, in this case, with men's sport. We need to see it as a different sport altogether. A sport that 86,174 spectators turned up to watch on March 8, 2020 and several million watched live on their television sets."
Several cricketers supported Pandey's reasoning and lauded her for her honesty in trying to preserve the fabric and the rules of cricket, rather than sacrificing them for better viewership and financial profitability.
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