00:00There has been a decline in the standard of women's cricket in the Caribbean, with the
00:04West Indies having it tough. Cricket analyst Fazir Mohammed says it all boils down to a
00:10lack of effort on the part of administrators in the different islands, resulting in the
00:15type of cricket that fans have been witnessing in this part of the world.
00:19I'll be honest and say that a lot of the cricket that I saw in the CPL, the women's CPL, was
00:23almost like watching cricket in slow motion because the standards weren't there to the
00:29highest level that you would expect. But again, it really comes down to finding that
00:35talent and insisting on the very highest standards. Because if you use Australia as the yardstick,
00:42we're some distance away. So what do we need to do? We need to stop giving lip service.
00:49We need to stop saying things and then not following up on it.
00:53When Mohammed was in England recently, he attended the Women's 100 competition. According
00:58to the well-respected analyst, the turnout at the matches was different to what he's
01:02observed over the years during women's matches in the Caribbean.
01:06Because I had the opportunity when the West Indies were in England for those three test
01:10matches to see a day of the 100 being played at the Utilita Bowl in Southampton. And the
01:18women's game was first and the ground was almost full. But it was full with a different
01:24type of audience. It was an audience of women, children, families. What the authorities are
01:31doing with the 100, they are using it as a springboard to grow the women's game, but
01:36also introduce new audiences. So you have a different vibe, a different environment.
01:42After the West Indies ladies won the 2016 T20 World Cup, fans in this region still did
01:48not support women's cricket. So what does Mohammed think should be done to bring crowds
01:52to matches?
01:53You got to say, well, okay, what can we do to attract families? Because it's a different
01:58audience. What can we do to provide events and entertainment, whether it's bouncy castles,
02:04whether it's different forms of entertainment. Everything is not nonstop soaker. It has to
02:08be something else to bring the crowds to enjoy an entire day, an entire spectacle. It takes
02:14effort, it takes money, it takes sponsorship. But if you don't have the will, and if you
02:19feel just allow it, saying, well, free entry, and let's hope for the best. And then we saw
02:23what happened in the women's final. This is what's going to happen year after year.
02:28Mohammed believes it's time to invest in the women by identifying talent around the Caribbean.
02:33He says by neglecting women, 50% of the population is being ignored.
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