Women's cricket team on a winning spree

Chennai:

The Indian women's cricket team has done remarkably well over the past 8 months - winning three consecutive series against New Zealand and the West Indies and bagging the Asia cup at Sri Lanka. At the end of the conditioning camp, the team is now ready to play seven one-dayers against the Aussies in December on home turf. It is a prelude to the World Cup in South Africa during March next year. But the level of play needs to be made more interesting. "Girls have to play attractive cricket and I think they are doing it now - we need to do one more thing which is maybe reduce the number of overs. Right now we are playing 50 overs games, maybe if we play 40 overs game it is going to be more exciting," said Shubhangi Kulkarni, Women's Cricket Association.

Lack of sponsorship Women's cricket suffers from a lack of sponsorship but if the BCCI took women's cricket under its all-powerful wings - something that has not happened so far at least then things could well be different. "It is a constant effort that we have to put in to get sponsors and yes we have to put in a lot of effort to convince people that it is worth putting their money in," said Kulkarni. Although Indian women's cricket does have some following in India, if it is to reach anywhere near men's cricket in terms of popularity and money then sponsorship is the name of the game.