Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Ehsan Mani batted for a more inclusive domestic structure for women and called on all cricket associations in the country to “adopt women’s cricket equally”.
Pakistan, currently ranked seventh in the MRF Tyres ICC Women’s Team Rankings, are placed fifth on the ICC Women’s Championship standings after having won four and lost two of their six games so far. They have a series against Australia coming up in Kuala Lumpur next month.
Mani believes that the pool of cricketers needs to go up. “I was quite surprised that the pool of women cricketers in Pakistan is very small, so obviously we have to increase the pool substantially,” he told reporters at a media briefing in Dubai.
“One of the main things we have to focus on is that all the men’s cricket associations in the country adopt women’s cricket equally and develop it in every town, every region.”
Mani cited the example of neighbouring countries India and Bangladesh, who have worked to improve women’s cricket in the recent past and have seen positive results. India reached the final of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017 and Bangladesh won their maiden Women’s Asia Cup title earlier this year.
“India has done it very well, Bangladesh has done it very well. We are dealing with a very very small pool at the moment and this is going to be an important priority for me to develop this,” Mani said.
“We have to try and popularise the game even more in women and children. It’s already popular but we have to get them to come and play.”
