The Indian women\u2019s team has lost two back-to-back matches in the World Cup, and suddenly, social media has turned into a playground for the worst kind of misogyny. It\u2019s not about tactics, selections, or strike rates anymore, it\u2019s about reminding women where they \u201cbelong\u201d. The kitchen jokes are back. The old clips of men saying \u201cwomen should never play cricket\u201d are being retweeted with glee. And the same people who don\u2019t remember the last bilateral series India played, have suddenly found their voice to declare that women\u2019s cricket is a waste of investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The irony is, these are the same fans who claim that criticism is a part of sport. Sure, it is. But there\u2019s a chasm between questioning Harmanpreet Kaur\u2019s captaincy or India\u2019s five-bowler strategy and mocking women for daring to play cricket at all. One is analysis. The other is prejudice, masquerading as opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s call this out for what it is, deep-rooted misogyny spilling over the moment women falter. Because, when the men\u2019s team loses, nobody says, \u201cSend them back to the kitchen.\u201d When the women\u2019s team loses, it\u2019s suddenly a referendum on their right to play the game. That\u2019s not \u201cequal criticism\u201d; that\u2019s pure sexism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The equal pay debate is another favourite. The outrage isn\u2019t about merit, it\u2019s about ego. The discomfort isn\u2019t financial, it\u2019s psychological: \u201cHow can a woman earn as much as a man in cricket?\u201d The assumption is that men are \u201csuperior\u201d athletes, playing \u201creal\u201d cricket, while women\u2019s cricket is some sideshow. It\u2019s the same mindset that refuses to acknowledge growth, skill, or the fact that millions of girls now dream with a bat and ball because of these players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And to those asking why women\u2019s cricket fans \u201cget so defensive\u201d, maybe because they\u2019ve had to defend the very existence of their sport every single day. The moment a woman criticises a male cricketer, she\u2019s abused. During the England tour, when I criticised Shubman Gill\u2019s captaincy in a Test, I was trolled for three days straight. My knowledge, my upbringing, even my gender, everything was fair game. So no, this isn\u2019t about being \u201ctoo sensitive.\u201d It\u2019s about demanding basic respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ask hard questions. Demand accountability. Discuss poor shot selection or strategy. But don\u2019t cloak misogyny as cricket analysis. Because those who wake up only during World Cups to spew sexist nonsense aren\u2019t fans, they\u2019re part of the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Criticism helps teams grow. Misogyny kills the game. And if you can\u2019t tell the difference, maybe it\u2019s time to stop pretending you understand cricket at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Indian women\u2019s team has lost two back-to-back matches in the World Cup, and suddenly, social media has turned into a playground for the worst kind of misogyny. It\u2019s not about tactics, selections, or strike rates anymore, it\u2019s about reminding women where they \u201cbelong\u201d. The kitchen jokes are back. The old clips of men saying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gurubhainews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3796"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gurubhainews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gurubhainews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gurubhainews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gurubhainews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3796"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gurubhainews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3798,"href":"https:\/\/gurubhainews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3796\/revisions\/3798"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gurubhainews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gurubhainews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gurubhainews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gurubhainews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}