Domestic tournaments must be increased to help women cricketers: Ekta Bisht

Left-arm spinner of the Indian Women’s cricket team, Ekta Bisht, was one of the key players of the Indian lineup in the recently concluded ICC Women’s World Cup 2017. Team India finished as the finalists of the tournament. They had a stupendous run of form during the course of the tournament where they stunned every opposition that came their way. The key to their success was the contribution each and every player made.

Ekta Bisht was one such key player. Recently, she reflected back at the plight of women’s cricket in a media interaction. As per the quotes in India Today, she recalled that there were not many facilities for women cricketers when she was growing up. She also cited that she was a pace bowler who used to practice with plastic balls. It was her childhood coach Liyakatt Ali who advised her to take up spin bowling.

“When I used to play with plastic ball, I was a pacer and also a good batswoman but when I went to my coach, he advised me to bowl spin and started giving training to me,” quoted Ekta Bisht.

On the pressure of finals

She further spoke about the fact that the pressure of the big finals was always going to be there. Bisht noted that the likes of Jhulan Goswami and Mithali Raj helped her settle the nerves on the big occasion. “It is obvious to be nervous when you play such a big tournament but players like Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami helped me a lot which made me comfortable,” she quoted.

Promote the game

Ekta Bisht feels that this is the ideal time to promote women’s cricket in India. And in order to do so, the board must organize more domestic tournaments to help the younger players. “Now in order to promote the game, tournaments at domestic level should be increased because it will help women players a lot,” Bisht mentioned.

Value of Test cricket

She further added that Test cricket remains to be the pinnacle of all formats. However, it is the t20 format that fetches the most limelight. Hence, it is important to focus on all formats of the game. “To make your base strong, Test cricket is important but twenty-20 gets more limelight than Test. All the formats are important,” she conceded.