Women athletes deserve an egalitarian playing field

Representation Pic

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) won the Women's Premier League (WPL) Season 2, covering themselves in glory. They defeated Delhi Capitals by eight wickets in the final at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. Apart from all the celebrations and attention, it was heartening to see that ahead of the presentation ceremony, RCB captain Smriti Mandhana received a special video call from star batter and former skipper of the men's team Virat Kohli. This surely upped the league ante and is set to catapult it to more visibility and success in the seasons to come.

We must go beyond scores though to push the message that girls and women must be allowed to go and play, find their game, seek success in sport and follow their sporting ambitions and dreams. Let leagues such as these carry underlying messages about parity of sporting opportunity and freedom for our girls/women.

The avenues must be made available as early as possible. If, in a family, the boy and the girl wish to pursue a sporting dream, both must receive equipment and encouragement to support them and see that there is as much parity as possible.

Trolls need to shut up as their comments at times are more about appearances and clothes than about the game when women are playing. This is trash talk and the gab of the gutter ends when mindsets change. Work on that from the start hitting back when possible at the haters or infantile baiters.

Finally, the followers or fans are doing more than they know, not just for WPL but for women's sports. With their interest and enthusiasm, the fans are stoking fires in so many young girls' hearts. They are cheerleading not just for a player, a game or a league. They are cheerleaders for a more egalitarian playing field.