What got women hooked to cricket?

There is an innate hurdle that cripples every sport in the world, men play most of the sports in the world. Hence the cricket viewership venn diagram is always dominated by the ‘stronger’ sex in the political sphere. Hence sports viewership, one can say, is testosterone driven. Soaps, music and movies is where the female eyeballs are clogged they say. Holds true still?

As against the above observation, the female viewership curve is on the rise, which suggests that there are more and more women taking to cricket. After all, one third of the IPL final 3 viewership came from women. TAM India’s study also suggest that while 22 million women watched the 2003 WC, 38 million watched the 07 WC. Today there are women commentators, women columnists, women experts in media houses such as NDTV and AAJ TAK. Gone are the days when cricket was a man’s game. The likes of Mithali Raj and other women cricketers have taken the sport to a different plane and the sport has undergone a transformation to become a family sport. Now there are families that sit in front of the TV to catch a cricket match in contrast to days where the matches were followed by only males. Cricket, a villain for the women has now gone on to become the hero. So, how did the image makeover happen? What made the sport an apple to the eves?

The first reason was the emergence of cricketers as a pin-up. From the early decades, the chocolate boys or heartthrobs, whatever you call them, like Pataudi, Kapil Dev, Imran Khan, etc brought to the game a macho rugged masculinity. They often featured in the cover pages of feminine magazines alongside models and actresses. Hence they were looked upon as pin-up boys whose posters would do rounds in a girl’s hostel. The ad-makers took this in their stride and these players were the faces of many products such as Cinthol, Boost, etc. The drive up in sales drove home the fact that these cricketers could reach out to women of all age groups. One shouldn’t forget the fact that, marketing in India always bears in mind that women are the key decision makers at home and they are the ones who come to a consensus on which product to buy. (And hence they ask for 33 percent reservation). So, the target audience for any ad-agency is the women and the up in sales suggest that they were wooed. These players not only endorsed the product, but in turn endorsed the sport. Hence cricket started to penetrate into the minds of the women.

Next up is the introduction of female commentators. This brought about a sense of involvement in the game for the females. It fed some food to the thought that cricket was no more a man’s fortress. Like in football, the foray of commentators such as Gabby Logan increased women viewers from 16 percent in 2001 to 36 per cent in 2006. India too had the same twist to the tale. According to TAM India, the IPL had 36 percent female viewers. Mandira Bedi is a case in point. The show “Extraa Innings”, anchored by Mandira in the 03 was a phenomenal success, garnering 36 million viewers per show. This was a shot in the arm for the broadcasters of the 03 WC. Hence the perception of cricket as a gentleman’s game started to drift away and cricket was associated with the eves too.

Last but not least, cricket’s desire to grow was the foremost reason which paved the way for the entry of female fans. While Test cricket fetches a scant number of followers even from the oldest followers of the game, one can’t anticipate women to follow the longer version. Hence, T20 made its way to the Indian soils. BCCI, which rooted against the concept of T20, is now the patron of the IPL. This format of the game has added a plethora of women followers. Along with cricket, these games are packaged with glitz and glamour and the three hour schedule resembles a bollywood movie. With people leading busy lives and with attention spans getting shorter, sports have to come in entertaining capsules to prevail over its contemporaries. Today an IPL match almost claims a 50-50 ratio among people who throng the gates of the stadium. The club culture has gone down well with the girls and the gossip involved too has been well digested. The success story of IPL is mainly attributed to the fact that it managed to enthrall the other gender, who for long remained away from the sport. The IPL hence had record TRP ratings and the rest they say is history.

The T20 format might seem a bitter compromise to the purists, but for the sport to sustain itself, it has to evolve. To all you purists, can you think about the doom, a world without cricket?

The entry of women to the sport has added a whole new dimension to it. There are brilliant writers and commentators in the field today. As always, woman have showed they fall no way short of men when it comes to cricket. The sport now enjoys family audience and the sport as a form of entertainment has jumped leaps and bounds.

The process of making women hooked to cricket has left no stone un-turned. The publishing industry too has played a part in it. “Zoya effect” by Anuja Chauhan was a brilliant book on this theme and it went on to become a chart topper. The book is now to be made into a movie by Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment.

My salutations to all the women cricket followers around the globe. The sport needs you to grace it. You are here to stay. Hats off.

Statistics Courtesy: Sports Marketing by Shyam Balasubramanian and Vijay Santhanam