Women's cricket gained significant popularity among the men’s cricket dominated fans and enjoyed unprecedented attention around the world over recent years.
Even the last month’s ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 final between Australia and India witnessed record about 86,000 spectators at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground to boost the Women’s game.
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All the sporting events including cricket around the world have been brought to a halt by the coronavirus outbreak which has infected 3,232,490 and killed 228,513 internationally so far.
But the ongoing global Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic could have more impact on Women’s game with the cash-strapped governing bodies looking to give priority to men's events over less-lucrative women's fixtures to stable financial crisis once the global COVID-19 crisis is over.
However, Australia Women’s team all-rounder Ellyse Perry doesn’t think that the COVID-19 crisis will affect women's sport and even claimed the sport is resilient which doesn’t have a long-lasting negative effect of the current pandemic.
Perry told the Australian Associated Press, “Sport, in general, is resilient and I can't actually see it having a long-lasting negative effect. It's certainly made organizations rethink how they run their sports and their codes and potentially strip it back to what is really important. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I don't think it's going to affect women's sport.”
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She further added, “It's become so apparent that if you want all your population engaging in your code you need to engage all the population. And part of that is having women's involvement. It's still very much an area for growth and that might be even more apparent after coronavirus because codes are going to have to keep finding new revenue streams.”
Meanwhile, the 29-year-old has also hinted that Australia women's team could be the first side to resume cricket amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
She further added, “It might be the case that either the Aussie women's team or Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) might be the first cricket to start up again. I think there is a lot of scope in that.”
The all-rounder also feels that WBBL has a good chance of getting a stand-alone window if the forthcoming T20 World Cup 2020, to be held in Australia in October-November, is postponed.
Perry signed off by saying, “I was probably a little fearful for this WBBL because of the men's T20 World Cup. I think it probably would have got swallowed in that. If the men's World Cup doesn't go ahead then it's a really good chance for us to have a stand-alone window.”
(With PTI Inputs)
