Jhulan Goswami Backs Shikha Pandey's Opinion Of Not Tinkering With Rules In Women's Cricket

Jhulan Goswami, the veteran Indian fast bowler, has come out in support of her fellow pacer Shikha Pandey’s opinion against the changes in playing conditions to make women cricket ‘attractive’.

Reduced size of pitch and ball and bringing in the boundary line are some of the changes that are being proposed to make the women’s game more ‘attractive’. Voicing her opinion against the same, Shikha Pandey had sent a series of tweets on her timeline.

Jhulan Goswami, in a recent interview to timesnownews.com, expressed her agreement with Shikha, adding that no other sport tinkers with its rules like cricket does.

“I completely agree with Shikha. It was all spot on and very brave of her. We cannot make so many changes to the game. People keep suggesting a lot of changes in cricket – 3 day match, 2 day match, T10 format; the list is long but in other sports like football, nobody talks about rule changes, technology keeps getting an upgrade,” Goswami said.

‘It’s important that women’s matches are shown live’- Jhulan Goswami

The 2020 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup final between hosts Australia and the Women in Blue was played in front of a record crowd of 86,000 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground [MCG] and Goswami reckons that it is a sign of whirlwind change in women’s cricket.

“Without changing anything, people came and watched the World Cup final. 86,000 people watching women’s cricket. Honestly, I never thought something like this would happen in women’s cricket. The last 50 overs World Cup final, in England, also had the highest viewership. Things are changing and as players, we need to focus on improving our standard and technique and we are working on it,” she added.

Jhulan said that while the ICC and BCCI are doing their best in popularizing women cricket, she still feels more needs to be done to grab the eyeballs.

“We need to focus on branding and viewership. It’s important that women’s matches are shown live, during bilateral series it’s important that we display use of technology. BCCI and ICC are already working on it, initiatives are being taken, efforts are being made but we need to emphasise on growth of grassroots level players,” Jhulan Goswami said.

The highest wicket-taker in Women’s ODIs, Jhulan Goswami feels that cricket needs to stop tinkering too much, as it has risen to the top through the existing formats.

“Cricket has risen to the top through the existing formats, let’s not make any changes to it, give it time and we can ensure it will make even further progress.” she added.

Also Read: Shikha Pandey Urges For More Marketing And Investment In Women’s Cricket Instead Of Tinkering With Rules