someblokecalleddave
Well-Known Member
I run the risk of sounding sexist here and generalising on a grand scale and apologise beforehand if I do. A couple of weeks ago, someone we know was given a handful of tickets for the Australia v England womens T20 match at the Essex Count Ground here in Blighty. The match was a part of their Ashes tour and we went along... My wife who doesn't like cricket and my two lads Joe 12, Ben 14. The weather was good and it was a late start evening match meaning they ended up playing under lights for the 2nd innings. I'm not a massive cricket fan, who goes all the time, but I've seen a few test match games featuring a number of the test match sides... England, Australia, Pakistan and India. I play cricket at 3rd and 4th XI club level and therefore play alongside youngsters 15, 16, 17 and 18 year olds. But, nothing could have prepared me for what I saw that evening...
I work in FE education teaching girls between the age of 16 and 25, our college has sports qualifications and I see some of the activities that they get involved in, but overall I must admit I kind of write girls off as being a lost cause when it comes to sport. So this game I watched was a revelation, I was absolutely amazed at every aspect of the game, I've never seen cricket played with such intensity, committment, agility and skill as both the England and Australian sides. Maybe it's the same in mens T20, but without witnessing it, I'm sceptical? Maybe I have such low expectations of womens sport, that this reality which may be normal for avid sports watchers - was just totally new and unexpected for me?
I was amazed at how fit they were overall, simple things like, if one of the girls did something spectacular inside the circle, some of the girls on the boundary would think nothing of running in congratulating her and running back to thier fielding position. Not once, but throughout the game, as though conservation of energy was not on their radar. Whilst fielding, they were continually running as sweepers almost 1/4 of the way round the pitch at full tilt to then put in a spectacular dive at full stretch for the ball to land cleanly as if magnatised into their hands to then land and get up within a fraction of a second getting the ball 95% of the time straight back to the keepers hands. It was draw dropping amazing and again not a one off or restricted to one super fielder, but all of them, it wasn't like they were human, they were super-human, I've never seen anything like it in my life. I've seen some amazing surfers, the worlds best, I've seen premiership football (which is as dull as hell and totally over-rated) but this was incredibly good. The English wicket keeper Sarah Taylor was simply astounding, standing up to the stumps to the quicks, taking the ball from full blooded hook shots almost wearing the bat in the face and she doesn't wear a helmet! A cat couldn't have reacted that fast on speed. Looking around for something to back up or explain the no helmet rationale I found this http://www.theguardian.com/sport/sarah-taylor and reading some of it, I'm not alone in recognising the super-human aspects of these girls, Taylor in particular - being discussed within the ECB it seems, as an option in the mens game, she is that good!
I've read and heard before, that in the future, the fact that because of the biology of women and thier in-built superior recovery rate, which comes as a result of having to go through child birth and then get back to looking after a family, this puts women in a potentially superior place to men. They apparently run marathons and go through other physical long haul endurance tests and recover at far faster rates than we do. With todays diets and the developments in sport science are we looking at a period soon where womens sport starts to have parity with men? Because the evidence I saw at Essex a couple of weeks ago would suggest that the day is far closer than I'd ever imagined.
I'd recommend Womens international T20 cricket to anyone if it featured either England or Australia, it was for me the greatest sports spectacle I've ever seen with regards skill, agility, speed, committment, stamina and more besides!
I work in FE education teaching girls between the age of 16 and 25, our college has sports qualifications and I see some of the activities that they get involved in, but overall I must admit I kind of write girls off as being a lost cause when it comes to sport. So this game I watched was a revelation, I was absolutely amazed at every aspect of the game, I've never seen cricket played with such intensity, committment, agility and skill as both the England and Australian sides. Maybe it's the same in mens T20, but without witnessing it, I'm sceptical? Maybe I have such low expectations of womens sport, that this reality which may be normal for avid sports watchers - was just totally new and unexpected for me?
I was amazed at how fit they were overall, simple things like, if one of the girls did something spectacular inside the circle, some of the girls on the boundary would think nothing of running in congratulating her and running back to thier fielding position. Not once, but throughout the game, as though conservation of energy was not on their radar. Whilst fielding, they were continually running as sweepers almost 1/4 of the way round the pitch at full tilt to then put in a spectacular dive at full stretch for the ball to land cleanly as if magnatised into their hands to then land and get up within a fraction of a second getting the ball 95% of the time straight back to the keepers hands. It was draw dropping amazing and again not a one off or restricted to one super fielder, but all of them, it wasn't like they were human, they were super-human, I've never seen anything like it in my life. I've seen some amazing surfers, the worlds best, I've seen premiership football (which is as dull as hell and totally over-rated) but this was incredibly good. The English wicket keeper Sarah Taylor was simply astounding, standing up to the stumps to the quicks, taking the ball from full blooded hook shots almost wearing the bat in the face and she doesn't wear a helmet! A cat couldn't have reacted that fast on speed. Looking around for something to back up or explain the no helmet rationale I found this http://www.theguardian.com/sport/sarah-taylor and reading some of it, I'm not alone in recognising the super-human aspects of these girls, Taylor in particular - being discussed within the ECB it seems, as an option in the mens game, she is that good!
I've read and heard before, that in the future, the fact that because of the biology of women and thier in-built superior recovery rate, which comes as a result of having to go through child birth and then get back to looking after a family, this puts women in a potentially superior place to men. They apparently run marathons and go through other physical long haul endurance tests and recover at far faster rates than we do. With todays diets and the developments in sport science are we looking at a period soon where womens sport starts to have parity with men? Because the evidence I saw at Essex a couple of weeks ago would suggest that the day is far closer than I'd ever imagined.
I'd recommend Womens international T20 cricket to anyone if it featured either England or Australia, it was for me the greatest sports spectacle I've ever seen with regards skill, agility, speed, committment, stamina and more besides!
