England and Australia have a long and complicated history both on and off the sporting field. On one hand, England regained the Ashes last year, but on the other hand, they gave us the Spice Girls, so we will remain in their debt forever. The Wallabies just defeated England at the Rugby World Cup, but on the other hand we gave them Peter Andre. So….we again owe them forever, in a different way.
In an exciting and positive development for both countries, the England and Wales Cricket Board has just given permission for seven of England’s best cricket players to play the entire season of the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) in Australia. The inaugural season of the WBBL is a big step forward for women’s cricket. Eight teams from all over the country are participating, and all teams have adopted the structure, team name and team colours of their comparative men’s T20 Big Bash League teams. The league has been given yet another boost with the board’s decision, as it means marquee players like the England captain Charlotte Edwards will be free to play the whole season in Australia.
In another sign that the women’s game is taking leaps forward, the Brisbane Heat has announced that they have secured a major sponsor (Epic Pharmacy), which is a first for the WBBL, and hopefully just the beginning. The league kicks off on 5 December, with the first of eight matches to be broadcast live on ONE starting on 19 December. So if you ‘wannabe’ a person who decides to ‘spice up your life’, then ‘gimme a little sign’ and ‘say you’ll be there (at the ground)’ to watch the women kick off an exciting season of matches.
In ‘first’ news from a sport that is often compared to cricket, (usually to help Americans kind of understand what cricket is), Major League Baseball (MLB) team the Oakland Athletics has become the first ever MLB team to hire a female coach. The league has been around for more than 110 years, and Justine Siegal has signed on to be the first female coach for the Oakland Athletics’ Instructional League team. In 2011, Siegal became the first woman to throw batting practice for major league teams, and had previously been the first woman to coach any professional men’s team when she became first-base coach for an independent baseball team in 2009. When asked what her motivation was for achieving these goals, she replied:
If you tell a girl she can’t play baseball, what else will she believe she can’t do? This is the greatest game on earth, so why shouldn’t we all play it?
This sentiment also applies to former all-American (and Olympic gold medallist) softball star Jessica Mendoza, who last week did not actually play baseball, but instead became the first woman to commentate a nationally televised playoff baseball game between the Houston Astros and the Yankees. Many professional baseball pundits gave Mendoza high marks, particularly for her astute breakdown of play, and it seems she will be on the radar for similar opportunities in the 2016 season. Of course there was a sexist backlash against Mendoza, because she is:
- A woman
- A woman in the public eye
- A woman talking about sport
- A woman talking about men playing sport
The backlash included a derogatory and sexist Twitter rant by a sports radio host in Atlanta, who later apologised and was suspended for two weeks. Mendoza took the reactions in her stride, commenting:
Any time there is a change, there’s normally a lot of resistance. I think the [thing I was most] excited about was the aftermath and how much support there really was.
Someone else who is affecting change through sport is 25-year-old Nepalese runner Mira Rai, who wants to use running to inspire women in Nepal. Rai’s life has been one of hardship, including two years as a Maoist child soldier, but she is now winning races in one of the hardest sports in the world, trail running, which involves races of 50 – 100km in high altitude over mountains. Rai took up the sport less than two years ago, but is now winning international races all over the world. Winnings from her victories so far are more than the average Nepali women would earn in a lifetime, but Rai is clear that running is about more than money for her. As she says, it’s about providing girls and women with inspiration and options:
I want to bring more sisters into trail running, and give others opportunities. I’ve always thought that women are equal to men, and I want to make it possible they have the same opportunities.
A short film about Mira Rai’s journey is slated to be released on 7 December this year, and the full trailer can be viewed here.