In this week’s episode we discuss:
- The cancellation of England’s tour to Pakistan
- England players in WBBL
- England v New Zealand & Australia v India
- The drama of the RHF Trophy final
- The batter-batsman debate
CRICKETher
Women's Cricket News & Views
In this week’s episode we discuss:
CRICKETher 
Okay, so, after much thought, and dithering, I’ve pressed the ‘post’ key and entered into what is doubtless a very toxic subject. Take a deep breath and cross my fingers (but I take solace from the fact this is Crickether and not the BCC’s Have Your Say)
The MCC don’t govern the English language, just the rules of cricket. The Oxford Dictionary definition of the word ‘batsman’ makes no reference to gender – so that’s the official meaning of the word. It is gender neutral.
… but how long will ‘batter’ survive. In its verb form it means to administer violence – rather an unfortunate choice of word (and even more unfortunate if one considers the plight of female cricketers in Afghanistan).
If ‘batsman’ is seen as male then presumably ‘maiden’ (as in ‘maiden over’) is feminising an over off which no runs are scored and therefore must also be removed.
One question that springs to mind; would female cricketers prefer to be batsmen who are paid the same as male cricketers or batters that are not – because you are now batters who are not. Doesn’t feel like the greatest of leaps forward.
Finally, I’m happy for you to continue to use the term ‘crickether’ ….. um, perhaps you were ahead of your time, how about ‘bat-her’ ?
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I just don’t get the drama with batsman/batter at all. Perfectly happy to use batter…shrug. I do agree that there seems to be a generational shift. I watched some Hundred games with cricket newbies and everyone seemed to naturally take to ‘batter’. Seems an odd thing for MCC to announce by itself with such fanfare though; it should be somewhere in a whole list of changes they’re making to support greater inclusivity in the game.
One thing that struck me while watching the England/NZ games – a smattering of Hundred merch worn through the crowds, mostly Birmingham Phoenix and Trent Rockets (I did attend just the midlands games to be fair) but also older people around me talking about players in terms of their Hundred clubs. Also, I had made it a mission this year to invite people to come along and watch live cricket- got quite a few takers for the Hundred and Heyhoe, Lottie Cup but none for England v NZ!
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Great vodcast. One really pleasing aspect is you guys have so much actual too-level cricket to talk about, with 3 international series on, or just concluded, plus the Hundred & Heyhoe Flint in blighty and the WBBL about to begin – this is all a sign of real progress….
England have had NZ’s measure pretty well for much of the series and have really got themselves into trouble on occasion rather than been genuinely threatened by the Kiwis. The latter still depend way too heavily on 3-4 now ageing stars. Some talent coming through but I can’t see them consistently challenging the top four teams for a while
Australia have looked like a team that’s not played for ages and have been in quarantine (and for most of them, a lengthy lockdown).
The ODI loss was the best thing for them Tbh, allows them to shed the constant blather about the ‘streak’. They’ve also had the chance to blood some really promising young bowlers.
What will be interesting is to see if they’ve gone off the boil a bit after all the T20 World Cup & ODI streak hype. A few senior players are now that bit older, more injury prone, moving on with life etc. I suspect the ODI World Cup is very much open to any of Oz, England, India or South Africa.
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It’s interesting to ponder what the ODI series showed us – and that may not come clear until after the Ashes and the World Cup.
England are ranked #2 in ODIs, NZ are #5 and a *lot* closer to #6 than to #4. In NZ, England lost only 15 wickets across 3 ODIs. Here, England lost 42 in 5 (43 if you count the last ball stumping in Derby 🙂 ). It was within a whisker of going to the last game 2:2
Finally in the last game England looked like they did on the tour to NZ, and the England of the last couple of years.
Nearly all the analysis has attributed that to their long summer, tired legs, lots of cricket. Little if any to NZ’s bowling attack (sans Kerr, A and Mair). But I wonder.
Lets see what the coming season shows
(Same to a degree for Australia – rusty, quarantine, injuries etc.) But are we *finally* seeing the top of Women’s cricket even up a bit? Its not good for the game if we see another 26 match streak start.
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