Visibility of Role Models
Back in 2002, very few enthusiastic budding women cricketers witnessed Jhulan Goswami tear into the England batting line up in her debut series. The sight had made them charged up and inspired them to bowl at the wall with a rubber ball back in their house, dreaming that one day they will open the bowling with her. It didn’t matter whether the pictures on the DD sports channel were so pathetic grainy, it seemed like there was a sandstorm at the venue. Such is the power of a visible role model.
There are still thousands of young girls all across the country, who have never seen Jhulan Goswami bowl or Harmanpreet Kaur bat. The recent initiatives by the BCCI and Star Sports to broadcast the domestic T20 finals along with the Women’s World T20 and India-Australia T20Is has worked really well and with the right publicity, must travel a long way in kindling the dreams of the next generation of players.