Final will spark new era for women’s sport
Melbourne, March 8: The blockbuster final between India and Australia on Sunday changed women’s cricket forever.
In fact, that’s an understatement as the ICC T20 World Cup final will be seen as the day which marked the dawn of a new era for women’s sport worldwide.
Five years in the making, the most highly-anticipated occasion in the sport’s history lived up to its billing by setting a new attendance record not just for a women’s sporting event in Australia, but for women’s cricket globally.
It may have fallen just short of beating the world record attendance for a women’s sporting fixture, but 86,174 fans filling
the iconic MCG is a sight for any sports fan to behold.
In the six previous editions of the tournament, the highest Final crowd came in 2009 when 12,717 watched England beat
New Zealand in Sydney.
And seeing 73,000 more turn up in Melbourne for the same event 11 years later is a true testament to how far the game has come. What the match had
achieved was apparent before the stadium gates had opened as fans streamed into Melbourne Park in their hundreds up to seven hours before the first ball was bowled.
Seas of yellow and blue engulfed the concourse as fans from all walks of life - male and female, boys and girls, young and old — came together through a love of cricket. But it was when those fans entered the bowl that the real weight of the achievement hit home.
The noise was deafening from the offset — let alone when Alyssa Healy hit backto-back sixes to set Australia on their way to lifting the title on home soil.
The crowd figures will be talked about for years to come, but you don’t have to look far to realise that filling the MCG for a women’s sport fixture will not be a one-off.