Wednesday, May 07, 2008

The eves in good light

I'm not a huge fan of women's cricket, and honestly, have never paid any attention to it. It has nothing to do with any chauvinism, its just that the kind of physicality that I associate with the game, a kind of fluid body motion that leads to the kind of moment captured in the great cricket photographs, never seems to manifest itself in the women's version. I don't think this has anything do with strength, just a lack of a particular kind of coming together of physical cricket actions with the right blend of cricketing skill and timing. And thus I've never seen photos (and for me, it would stand to reason) of female cricketers in action that stand out in any fashion. Till today. Here are a couple of photographs of Bangladeshi women cricketers that are interestingly dynamic: the women in them are playing powerful cricket shots, and the photos capture an interesting blend of kineticism and cricketing skill. The first one shows Shathira Jakir driving smoothly through the off-side (I imagine the ball has been just played wide of point), and the second one shows Chamely Khatun smashing one through the leg-side (in front of midwicket, I guess). Note too, that the wicketkeeper in both photos is showing precisely the kind of ungainly body behavior that is usually a turn-off for me when it comes to women's cricket. Here is another example of that kind of less-that-pleasing-to-the-eye action.

3 Comments:

Blogger David Barry said...

I watched a day of women's Test cricket once (Aus v Eng). Apart from Catherine Fitzpatrick's bowling, and Karen Rolton's batting, it was very low-quality - it looked about fifth-grade men's cricket (ie, five rungs below the state team). It was interesting but I wouldn't go back.

Oddly enough, I saw a few overs of a women's ODI on YouTube (Eng v NZ I think), and it wasn't as bad as watching it at the ground. I'm not sure why. Perhaps dibbly dobbly bowling is better for television.

9:47 AM  
Blogger Samir Chopra said...

David: I think I've seen the odd highlight here and there and never really enjoyed it myself. There were a few moments from an Aus-Eng ODI a few years ago that caught my attention for a bit, but that was about it.

12:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

good point...havent focussed on this aspect of the matter till u brought it to attention...but i thought that by relying more on skill than on power it might bring more balance to the game that is kind of missing from the men's game.......

11:08 PM  

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