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Women's World Cup
is round the corner! |
By Arti Vaidya, Former Indian batswoman
 The
bunch of 15 selected Indian women cricketers for
the upcoming Women's World Cup 2005 would have
great responsibilities as the survival of
Women's Cricket in India rests on them. I came
across Cricketfundas.com while surfing the net
and to my utter astonishment I happened to read
an article written by my friend Gargi Banerji on
Women's Cricket. It was really very heartening
to know that some one indeed was writing on
women's cricket. Hats off to
www.cricketfundas.com for providing information
on cricket on domestic as well as International
level. Very few would know that Gargi Banerji
taught me how to bat.
In my cricketing career I never had this
opportunity of talking about it. Suddenly I find
this kind of exposure, which is really great.
Women's cricket in India has a history. Greats
like Diana Eduljee, Gargi Banerji, Shanta
Rangaswami, and Shubhangi Kulkarni… were all the
names to reckon with and as youngsters looked
upto them and got aspired to play for India I
think women's cricket is in its survival stage
as it was always been. One institution that has
been helping the cause has undoubtedly been
Indian Railways. Indian Railways by offering
jobs to women cricketers has given us financial
security. Diana Eduljee has to be thanked and
appreciated for this because she was
instrumental in forming teams at Zonal Levels in
Railways.
The Women's Cricket World Cup is round the
corner in March 05 in South Africa. Not much is
being heard about the preparation camps. I think
the selection would depend upon performance
during the Australian tour of India in
November-December this year. Now this is going
to be a great platform for all the players to
get in form for the World Cup. I feel India
should have a foreign tour before the World Cup
so that there would be a quick assessment of
game plans, which would require execution in
South Africa. If our girls perform well in the
World Cup, women's cricket could be marketed in
India. So in a way victory in this World Cup can
bring about transition in the game, which is
very crucial at this stage.
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