India willing to help Pak Women’s Cricket

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan has the potential to qualify for the 2008 women’s cricket World Cup and India could lend them a helping hand to become a force, an official has said. ‘It’s a matter of getting things together and giving opportunities to women in Pakistan and India is willing to help and nurture Pakistan’s women cricketers,’ honorary secretary of Women’s Cricket Association of India (WCAI), Shubhangi Kulkarni was Saturday quoted by the Daily Times as saying.
She added that the proof of this came from the fact that Pakistan’s women played good cricket against the Indian under-21 team in the maiden three-match series that concluded recently in Lahore. Shubhangi, who is also the Asian representative in the International Cricket Council (ICC), observed that women’s cricket was progressing in Asia. ‘Cricket has always been the most popular sport across the sub-continent but women’s cricket has also started flourishing along with other sports,’ she said.
She added that women’s cricket was evoking tremendous response from the female fan base and was being increasingly regarded as a means of empowering women.
‘We see cricket as a channel for women’s empowerment and development in Asia,’ she said.
‘There is an immense interest in cricket among the girls and in 26 states of India we hold inter-club, inter-state, and inter-zone championships to make the game more popular.
‘Girls from even the conservative areas of the country are now playing cricket’.
The former captain of the Indian women’s cricket team, who switched over to sports administration after her playing days, is in Lahore to finalise the dates of the inaugural women’s Asia Cup to be played in Karachi.
Taking a dig at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Shubhangi said: ‘We enjoy independent status. The BCCI is too busy with the men’s cricket and they never helped us financially or otherwise’.
Shubhangi, who is also the Asian representative in the International Cricket Council (ICC), observed that women’s cricket was progressing in Asia.
‘Cricket has always been the most popular sport across the sub-continent but women’s cricket has also started flourishing along with other sports,’ she said.
‘In fact, we are getting development and financial support from Sahara and Citi Bank. They are our main sponsors’.—Agencies