The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) says that it had contacted other cricket boards regarding their players' participation in the inaugural Kia Super League (KSL), England's answer to the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL), the world's premier franchise-based Twenty20 tournament for women.
According to the Board of Control for Cricket in India, no such communication was received. As a result, not one Indian player applied to be part of the six-team event.
The Indian board had discouraged its women from taking part in the WBBL since it clashed with India’s domestic season. The KSL does not, but those from other nations have filled up the 18 slots for overseas players.
It is a moot point whether any Indian players would have attracted huge interest anyway. Since reaching the semi-final of the first women’s World Twenty20 in 2010, India have failed to make it past the first round in the next three editions. There was also an early exit in the 2013 World Cup on home soil.
There was a time when India were comfortably the best of the rest, behind the big three – Australia, England and New Zealand. Now, teams such as West Indies, who won the World Twenty20, have left them behind. Even Pakistan, who played their first World Cup nearly two decades after India did, have beaten them twice in the global T20 event.
At some level, you can understand the BCCI’s reluctance to let the men play in the Big Bash and other overseas leagues.
You could argue that such a step, even if it deprives players of experiences in other environments, helps to maintain the primacy of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
But the women don’t have an IPL, or anything remotely resembling it. Those that play Twenty20 at state level get paid a pittance – Rupees 1,250 (Dh70) a match. They also don’t play in front of anything like the crowds that the WBBL managed to attract.
Hayley Matthews, who turned out for the Hobart Hurricanes in the WBBL, was the surprise match-winner when West Indies upset Australia in the final of the WT20.
Some would argue that India’s Smriti Mandhana, just a year older at 19, is an even more accomplished player. But for now, Matthews is in the fast lane, while Mandhana and Indian women’s cricket remain stuck in a morass of indifference.
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE
Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport