BCCI shows gender bias against Indian women cricketers for travel and testing ahead of England tour, criticized

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has come under the scanner once again, this time for not treating its men and women players in the same way. If sources are to be believed, then Indian Men’s team will depart to England to play World Test Championship (WTC) final and a five-match series to be followed, by a charter flight.

The Men’s team is scheduled to depart on June 02. Meanwhile, the women’s team who are due to play one Test and three ODIs and T20Is will not have charter services. BCCI has arranged commercial travel to its women players who are slated to depart in the first week of June.  If sources are to be believed, then the BCCI will pick its Men players excluding those from Mumbai via charter plane, and then ask them to quarantine at the team hotel from Wednesday.

There is not yet an official word from BCCI as to how it would arrange travel for women players. It seems likely that the BCCI would most probably tell its women players and coaching staff to take the commercial route.

BCCI under heavy criticism again for treating women players differently

This is not the first time that BCCI has treated women players in an unusual manner. During the COVID-19 pandemic BCCI were mulling over the idea of conducting the IPL in UAE but there was no concrete news on the Women’s T20 Challenge taking place. After much speculation, Sourav Ganguly BCCI president finally decided to conduct the IPL with only three teams participating. Initially, the BCCI officials planned to include the fourth team but the idea was scrapped.

Also during the year 2020, Indian women were all set to tour England, but surprisingly the BCCI pulled out at the 11^th hour stating it was not sure about the England board’s bio-bubble approach. Later on, England had to call West Indies women for a five-match T20I series, which was successfully played out in the bio-bubble environment.

Apart from this, it has also been reported that BCCI have been providing COVID-19 testing to their male cricketers at their doorsteps. On the other hand, women cricketers have been asked to conduct their tests themselves.