Empowering more girls and women through sports
HARARE, ZIMBABWE, (CMC):
HIGHLY REGARDED all-rounder Keemo Paul has come in for high praise from West Indies captain Jason Holder, following his international debut against Afghanistan on Thursday.
The 20-year-old, a late replacement for the injured left-armer Sheldon Cottrell, scored an unbeaten 16 batting at number 10 and then grabbed a brace of wickets with his lively pace as West Indies slid to a three-wicket defeat at Harare Sports Club in their opening Super Sixes match of the ongoing ICC World Cup Qualifiers.
“I was really pleased with Keemo. He flew in two days ago, had a practice session [on Wednesday], and was straight into the game,” Holder said on Thursday.
INJURY CONCERNS
“We’ve obviously got some injury concerns in our camp and he was asked to do a job, and I felt he performed creditably.”
A key member of the West Indies side that won the Youth World Cup two years ago, Paul’s stocks have risen quickly of recently. He starred in the recent first-class season, grabbing 42 wickets, and also scored his maiden hundred, as he helped propel Guyana Jaguars to their fourth straight title.
In the recent Regional Super50. Paul snapped up 13 wickets at 21 runs apiece, earning a call-up to West Indies A, where he took eight wickets — including a five-wicket haul - in two one-dayers and notched a half-century.
AFEW days ago we celebrated International Women’s Day. Annually, March 8 is used to highlight the achievements of women and show how far women have progressed in various aspects of society. Sports is no different. This gives us another opportunity to reflect on advancement (or lack thereof ) of women in the sporting arena.
We have had some watershed moments for women such as the 1975 Conference on Women in Mexico City, followed by the United Nations (UN) Decade for Women (1976-1985), which culminated in 1985 with the third UN Conference on Women in Nairobi. Since then, there have been several initiatives targeting improving the lives of women, including Beijing 1995 and later, Beijing +5.
In Jamaica, there have been some improvements, but there are several areas where change is needed as girls and women in sports still struggle to find a consistent medium through which they can hone and develop their talents. While track and field and netball provide several opportunities for girls and women at various levels, other sports such as basketball, cricket, and football struggle.
At the high school level, the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) Girls’ football competition has struggled to attract interest from the media as well as the average Jamaican. At the senior level, the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) has not hosted a senior Women’s League since 2016 and has struggled to upgrade the competition from an amateur league. When it was last held, there were very few interested teams. Obviously, this then has created a challenge in consistently developing a quality national team of local players over the past few years as there is little room to develop those skills locally.
The Jamaica Basketball Association (JaBA) has not been able to host a senior Women’s League since 2012; and even though six years later a team will be competing i n the Commonwealth Games 2018 in Australia, there are ver y few opportunities locally for girls to play.
OTHER CHALLENGES EVIDENT
In cricket, similar challenges are evident with no schoolgirls’ competition and challenges hosting a consistent senior women’s tournament even though the West Indies is one of the best women’s team in the world with a Jamaican - Stafanie Taylor at the helm.
So 18 years after the UN General Assembly convened a special session for the five-year review of the Beijing Platform for Action, there are areas that we must improve on as we look forward to next ye a r ’s celebration of International Women’s Day. This is important because there is a plethora of literature highlighting the impor tance of spor ts and physical education to girls and women.
The Women’s Sports Foundation paper entitled ‘Her Life Depends on It: Sport, Physical Activity and the Health and Well-Being of American Girls’ links the i mpact of physical activity on the “physical, psychological and cultural health of girls” while ‘Benefits — Why Sports Participation f or Girls and Women’ highlights some of the key benefits for girls participating in sports. These include but not limited to:
■ high self-esteem and low level of depression;
■ prevention of chronic diseases in later life;
■ substance use prevention; ■ sexual and reproductive health;
■ educational and social dimensions;
■ athletic participation;
Additionally, as I have stressed in a previous column, we need to increasingly create safe spaces for girls to be able to participate in sport without fear of sexual harassment or other forms of gender-based violence.
One of the main thrusts of this year ’s Commonwealth Games 2018 is the equal number of medals for men and women, along with a big push to have more females participating in sports. So it is evident that increasingly, world governing bodies are examining ways to i nclude more women i n sports. We have to follow suit by empowering more girls and women through sports.
I am f ully aware of t he funding issues, but some of these are based on gender stereotypes and the belief that girls must not par ticipate in some spor ts. So while we reflect on the achievements of women, let us consider that we have a far way to go to help girls realise that sports can be a viable option for both recreation and as a profession.
“It is evident that increasingly, world governing bodies are examining ways to include more women in sports. We have to follow suit by empowering more girls and women through sports.”
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