Triumph for cricket

THERE ARE some moments in sport when all who participate are winners.

Sunday’s victory of the Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) over the Barbados Royals is one of them.

The TKR may have walked away with the inaugural Massy Women’s Caribbean Premier League crown, but the Royals were also winners. The sport of cricket was victorious.

Captain Deandra Dottin, bowler Anisa Mohammed and the entire TKR team have, through their efforts, now inspired a generation of young people who may be interested in getting involved in the game.

Not only did Ms Dottin’s team do the seemingly impossible by defending its first-innings score of 100/7 against an aggressive opponent, but Ms Dottin herself made history by scoring the first half-century in women’s premier league history.

Also impressive was Hayley Matthews’s effort for the other side, taking three wickets in the 19th over to finish with 3/22. Ms Dottin was one of her casualties.

For a moment, as the Royals dug in, it looked as though they were well on their way to a coronation. That is, until wickets began to fall, with Ms Mohammed taking the final wicket and ending the game with 3/16 as the TKR prevailed over the Royal’s 90 all out.

The display of elan and technical prowess on both sides was a thrilling, fitting end to a ground-breaking tournament in which the boundaries that were transgressed related to more than just what was happening on the field at Warner Park in Basseterre, St Kitts.

The league was proof, if proof were needed, that there is a place for women in the sport of cricket beyond the sidelines. This is particularly meaningful in the Caribbean context, where the sport has never been just about the sport, but the communities that support it.

The struggle for independence – which was only recently commemorated – and the need to overcome colonialist systems and viewpoints have long been a part of the game, along with the idea of overcoming class and race barriers. The pulse of regional integration, too, has always been felt on the pitch.

Yet though we have come to a pivotal moment for gender parity in the sport, there is still more progress to be made.

For example, the decision to have female cricketers wear uniforms bearing their first names, which differs from what applies to male players, is worth scrutinising, suggesting as it does different treatment and implying infantilisation or disparagement of serious athletes.

Cricket is still re-emerging from a long, pandemic slumber, amid a time of great economic and political uncertainty.

With so much that has been neglected and with so many challenges ahead, the efforts of the TKR women may help to rekindle the sport’s flame.