It is difficult to say if Roshani Bohara is a happy lady or not. Roshani is a cricketer from Baitadi. She must be happy for being named the player-of-the-series during the Women\u2019s National T20 championship. The title came about as she scored 99 runs and claimed six wickets during the tournament. Along with the title, Roshani got richer by Rs 10,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She could be a touch sad with the cash award though. Last time the same award for a player in Men\u2019s National T20 championship carried a purse of Rs. 15 thousand. In fact, Roshani\u2019s purse would be considered good, if you take into account the amount title winning team got: all of Rs. 25,000. Compare that to the title winning team in men\u2019s: Rs. 125,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That shows the discrepancy in the way men and women are treated in sports. It\u2019s not that such things happen only in Nepal. Women\u2019s World T20 was being played during the Men\u2019s World T20 Cricket. Not many people took notice, for it was not mentioned much in media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The amount of media coverage for Women\u2019s National T20 championship has been comparable. Mainstream media carried it, but reluctance was visible, for it received lesser column centimeters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This column is not an attempt to do what Tennis player Billie Jean King did, asking for prize money at par with male tennis players. A few other women Tennis players like Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Jennifer Capriati and Steffi Graf, over the years, also joined the outcry. In fact, in 1972, after winning the US Open Jean King threatened to boycott the Grand Slam the following year if she was not paid equally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The question here is not about pay. But what needs to be done, or rather what is not being done. It\u2019s a common knowledge that Nepal has bagged ACC U-19 Women\u2019s championship three times in a row. In fact, Nepali women have made sure no other team takes the title in any of the abovementioned championship held so far.
At the senior level, Nepali women were runners-up in ACC Women\u2019s tournament in 2007 (25-over-a-side). Following that, we\u2019ve not been able to go beyond semi-finals in the biennial event (as it was converted to ACC Women\u2019s T20 championship).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This shows that Nepali women\u2019s cricket does have potential. The good show at age-group and lack of similar achievement shows that something has not been done right. It\u2019s just about focusing on what to do. As of now, Armed Police Force is the only organization that employs women cricketers, giving opportunity to 11 players who\u2019ve represented Nepali team at international level. That explains why APF got the title, but it also raises a question as how long can we rely on only one organization, to develop women\u2019s cricket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Right after the Dashain festival, Nepali women will be playing ACC Women\u2019s T20 Asia Cup \u2013 owing to semi-final finish at ACC Women\u2019s T20 championship last year \u2013 where teams from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will also play. Now to perform at that level, you need a team that has some confidence. Confidence is also a result of motivation that players receive. Awards definitely are one of the motivating factors. Other is institutionalization of cricket, and the cricketers. It would be only fair to say that precious little has been done so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We might remember that Nepal women\u2019s cricket (Nepalgunj) was given Global award for Best Women\u2019s Cricket Initiative by ICC in 2006. Of course, it was recognition of what Cricket Association had done so far. The award should have worked as a shot in the arm and development should have continued. It\u2019s never late to start though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAN has already impressed yours truly by organizing National T20 Championship in Pokhara, first time any national cricket tournament was held in mofussil in past 9 years. It\u2019s good, if development continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the men cricketers were given salary by CAN earlier this year \u2013 after announcing stipend for national cricketers \u2013 former captain of Nepali women\u2019s team, Neera Rajopadhyay posted on her facebook page: \u201cWhat do you understand by national cricketers?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hopefully, next such development will not miss women cricketers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(PS: This write-up appeared in Yours Truly\u2019s weekly sports column in The Kathmandu Post – OFFSIDE \u2013 on 6 Oct, 2012)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It is difficult to say if Roshani Bohara is a happy lady or not. Roshani is a cricketer from Baitadi. She must be happy for being named the player-of-the-series during the Women\u2019s National T20 championship. The title came about as she scored 99 runs and claimed six wickets during the tournament. Along with the title, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cricket"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":651,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions\/651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}