When Guyanese Cherry-Ann Fraser returned to Guyana from the 2020 ICC women’s T20 World Cup in Australia earlier this year, she told Stabroek Sports that the experience was an invaluable one.
However, she also made a plea for female athletes to be equally respected and recognised like their male counterparts.
“I think the opportunity to play more cricket via such avenues as leagues [is important]. Yes, the game has grown but I still think more could be done, and adding to that, I think more respect and recognition on the professional front is needed since as compared to our male counterparts, we are significantly less respected and recognised,” the athlete had disclosed.
Fraser and her female international cricket counterparts can now begin to bargain for better pay among other improvements to the women sport following a recent announcement by the International Cricket Council (ICC) that the viewing figures for the 2020 tournament was the best ever.
“…the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020, which has become one of the most-watched women’s sporting events in history as the sport continues to set new benchmarks on and off the field,” cricket’s world governing body said.
The women’s event was so popular that it rivalled the viewership attained by the men’s in previous tournaments, becoming the second most viewed ICC tournament.
“The event had already clocked up 1.1 billion video views via ICC digital channels, which is more than 20 times the video views delivered in the previous edition played in the West Indies in 2018 and 10 times the previous most successful women’s cricket event, which was the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in 2017.
“These figures make it the second most successful ICC event ever after the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 and that trend continued via broadcast with the final achieving record viewership worldwide.”
The news prompted a fitting reaction from ICC Chief Executive Manu Sawhney who expressed satisfaction that women’s cricket is beginning to capture a wider audience.
“We are delighted with these outstanding global viewership numbers that demonstrate the power of women’s cricket to attract huge audiences across the globe,” said the executive.
He added: “It reinforces our belief that there is a significant opportunity around the women’s game and collectively we must promote it further so more fans can enjoy it, more kids are inspired by it and sponsors and broadcasters want to be a part of it.”
ICC’s efforts to develop women’s cricket world over has been well documented. The body recently launched a campaign to attract one million more girls to the sport during the next 12 months.
In the region, Cricket West Indies (CWI), has been steadily doing its bit by ensuring the Caribbean’s top female players are contracted to ensure financial security, comparable to their male counterparts.
