The Women’s T20 World Cup is upon us. India will start their campaign against New Zealand tomorrow and go into the competition as one of the favourites. They have won both their warm-up games and the Harmanpreet Kaur-led team are on the cusp of history. When Rohit Sharma led the Indian men’s team to the USA and the Caribbean in June, the number of media who accompanied them was huge. We all remember how many media people came back on the special charter flight from Barbados thanks to Jay Shah and the BCCI.
The question is, how many of our media colleagues will be in Dubai and Sharjah for the women’s World Cup? If the captains meet was an index, the number of Indian media present was minuscule. In fact, there were no more than six or seven media persons from India, which included three from RevSportz. How we cover this event is clearly an index of how we see the women’s game, and if we have moved to embracing it with equal passion and verve.
For the longest time, the BCCI was criticised for not doing enough for the women’s game. Now, it has launched the Women’s Premier League (WPL), given the team enough and more facilities, and left few stones unturned. But has the media done enough? The many sports platforms who were all there in the US and Caribbean have conveniently stayed away. Some will cite budget issues, while others will say the shows would not get enough eyeballs. Both are lies. Just like many tried to make up for not covering the Paralympics by interviewing athletes after they returned to India – to show how much they ostensibly support para sport – many will sit in their armchairs and start giving expert opinions on the women’s World Cup.
This is where we in the media go wrong. We continue to discriminate even if we don’t want to. Our actions are contrary to what we say, and that’s where we fail to serve the sport well. That’s where we at RevSportz are committed to making a difference.
We had sent two of our reporters – Debasis Sen and Ishaan Shahane – to the USA and the Caribbean. We have sent two of our reporters, Bharath Ramaraj and Snehashish Mukherjee, to Dubai and Sharjah. It is a World Cup, and the most important tournament our women have played in a while. A win could transform the sport forever, and be the 1983 moment for the women’s game. To not cover it on ground would be a huge failure. It is indicative of what we stand for. That we love spectacles and not sport. The men’s game is a spectacle, while the women’s game still isn’t seen as such, and that’s why we stay away citing budgets.
At the Olympics, there were at least 50 Indian media personnel present. The number fell to seven for the Paralympics. Of the seven, five were from RevSportz. For the men’s World Cup, the total number of scribes was more than 50. In Dubai, it is not even 10 at the moment. It is no longer the BCCI that is failing the women’s game. Rather, the BCCI is doing enough and more. It is the media that is not doing justice to the sport. The faster we come to terms with this reality, the better.
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