Lack of U-16 cricket and importance of Shafali
Shafali Verma is 17 years old. At 15, she broke a record Sachin Tendulkar had held for 30 years. At 16, she rose to the No. 1 ranking in T20I cricket. At 17, she’s blasting her way through a Test match.
She’s doing all this despite India not having an Under-16 women’s cricket tournament. Let that sink in.
She’s not entirely unique. Smriti Mandhana made her debut for India at 17. In her first Test, on a green pitch, she scored 51 in a tense last-innings chase to help India win. Deepti Sharma played her first international at 17. At just 19, she scored 188 in an ODI, then the second highest women’s ODI score. Jemimah Rodrigues was 17 when she got her first cap. In that first year of international cricket, she was in contention to win an ICC award for the best newcomer.
Those teenagers did all that without India having an Under-16 women’s cricket tournament.
Before you sound out any opinions, first the facts: India does have an Under-16 tournament for boys: the Vijay Merchant Trophy. It is played first within each zone, and then the top 2 teams from each zone qualify for the knockouts: prequarters, quarters, semis and a final. This, the premier Under-16 tournament for boys, is not a T20 tournament. It’s not even a 50-over tournament. It is a two-innings tournament, comprising almost 100 matches, each of which could last three days.
There are no women’s Under-16 competitions at the national level in India. In any format. The odd proactive zone, notably South Zone, conducted a few tournaments for Under-16 women in the late 2010s.
But that’s it.
If that’s not systemic underinvestment in women’s cricket, I don’t know what is.
For those who might argue that there probably aren’t enough girls of that age, another fact: Until 2006, when the BCCI took over women’s cricket,
Under-16 tournaments happened every year. I played in those tournaments, which had about 25 teams, and were organised by the Women’s Cricket Association of India.
That body had a bank balance that reminds me of the reserve petrol knob on my old scooter. But those very tournaments helped Mithali Raj make her India debut at age 16, and Jhulan Goswami at age 19. And I think we can all agree that there are more women and girls playing cricket today than there were in 2006.
These facts make certain opinions about a proper Women’s IPL seem laughable. Not enough depth? That’s like building only half a factory and then complaining there isn’t enough output. Not enough quality? Watch some domestic cricket please. Have you seen the carry that Vidarbha seamer Gargi Wankar gets? I hope you’ve watched Jharkhand’s Indrani Roy bat this season, score her 456 runs, and earn a spot in the Indian team.
The Vermas and the Mandhanas are gold to a national sports team: precocious talents who promise long service for the country, long years of entertainment. Imagine what would happen if India actually bothered to build a mine.
While India has been underinvesting in women’s cricket, Verma was taking her debut
Test by storm.
In this Test match, Verma negated two of the best swing bowlers in cricket, in overcast conditions. She held her own against the best spinner in women’s cricket, even dominating Sophie Ecclestone in phases. As she batted at double speed, you could see her slow down, applying learning’s from the first innings into her second. She was brutal while hitting down the ground while never seeming to hit the ball hard. And when she did focus on timing, she usually found the gap between point and third man. Records fell as hopes rose and the hopes were more valuable than any fallen stat. When Verma was batting, she opened conversations about the near impossible, an Indian win.
That really is the value of this player. She’s nowhere near her own ceiling, and yet she’s already raised the bar for everyone. Suddenly a run rate of three or more will be what we expect in every women’s Test. Suddenly 16 year olds will be expected to dominate World Cups. We’re soon going to be at a stage where we need a lot more Shafali Vermas, to feed the incredibly high expectations that Shafali Verma has set.
If only there was a way to produce more players like her.