I am not a cricket player. All I have for credit are the little cricket games I played with my elder brother as a kid. So when my neighbours planned to form a cricket team for a local cricket tournament, I didn’t think much of it. But… I didn’t think they would not even consider women in their team. They didn’t know if any of us were interested, had experience or were good players. They assumed it is going to be a men’s only event. Now that, more than irk me, shocked me. Yes, that’s how it is in international cricket. But I thought local matches were more casual, more gender free-friendly. The year is 2011 and we still think fights and sports are for men and cooking and sewing are for women?
When I asked if I could be in the team – just out of curiosity in fact – I was generously offered a cheerleader’s place. They meant it for fun. But repeatedly when the comment came from every guy i interacted with, in the neighbourhood, I was again, puzzled. This was not anymore a joke. They seriously could not even imagine a woman as a player. It is because the cricket ball is too hard for a fragile little woman’s soft skin, I gathered.
If I say more, I will only be branded a desperate feminist. I say ‘only’ because that would only make the depth of my words and concerns seem unimportant. I am not asking for justice. I am not thinking of a different picture where all is fair. I am not in the least asking to be in the team (ahh, i am no good at it)! I am just realizing discrimination is just another norm, an accepted reality of the world. It would always exist in subtle forms unquestioned. Wouldn’t it?
