Prolific Indian batter Smriti Mandhana is recognized as one of the most prominent batters in the Indian women cricket.

Top-order batter is currently ranked among the top-six women batters in both the formats of the white-ball cricket and have earned several laurels on the back of her brilliant batting performances.

She, in the interview, made a couple of appeals to the viewers of the game and are such that the public should understand and follow.

Smriti Mandhana spoke about there being many male viewers and urged women to participate in sports. She believes that even though the women don’t understand the game or like it, they still can be there to just watch it as that is how things will really change for the better in women’s cricket.

Quoting, Smriti Mandhana, “Even now, in stadiums, we have a crowd which is 80 per cent men. I’m not saying that men should not come to our games, but I am urging our women to participate in sports. Even if you don’t understand it or like it, just watch it. That’s how things will really change.”

Her 2nd appeal to the fans of the game in common was around fans drawing a comparison between men’s and women’s cricket. She elaborated on her appeal by stating it’s just a different game and that you don’t have to put us in the same category and she concluded her appeal with a fitting example from the Tennis court.

Quoting Smriti Mandhana, “I don’t like the comparison between men’s cricket and women’s cricket. It’s just a different game. You don’t have to put us in the same category. Initially, when tennis was developing as a sport, there were comparisons made between the serve rates of different players. Now it has reached a point where Serena Williams is appreciated just as Roger Federer is in his own right. It’s time for cricket to also reach that place.”

Quoting Smriti Mandhana, “I don’t like the comparison between men’s cricket and women’s cricket. It’s just a different game. You don’t have to put us in the same category. Initially, when tennis was developing as a sport, there were comparisons made between the serve rates of different players. Now it has reached a point where Serena Williams is appreciated just as Roger Federer is in his own right. It’s time for cricket to also reach that place.”

Sports and especially cricket in India has seen an increasingly higher viewer enthusiasm from both male and female viewers. A data read, the ratings for the Women’s T20 Challenge have seen a growth of 2.5x over 2018 to 2020 from 0.3 to 1.393. The WT20 Challenge’s reach of 105 million outpaced that of the Men’s India vs Australia 2020 ODI series which had a reach of 66 million 94. There was a 58 per cent increase in time spent by viewers watching women’s cricket from 2018 to 2020.

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