Overall, FICA noted a “clear increase in competitive structures and professional employment opportunities,” but continues to see a clear gap between the haves and have-nots of the game. Australia remains the “world leader”, England has the “most established women’s cricket structure”, and India, Bangladesh, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and the West Indies were praised to varying degrees for their progress.
On the other hand, Pakistan was written to be “struggling to keep up” with the rest, Scotland’s development was described as “hindered”, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe were assessed as “without professional structures” and the Netherlands was said to have “significant work to be done.” These results are reflected in the ICC rankings, with the missing countries appearing further down the list.
FICA described the ban on women’s sport in Afghanistan as a “significant blow” and described Afghanistan as “in breach” of the ICC’s full membership requirements, which insist on a women’s structure. While not calling for a ban in Afghanistan, FICA “continues to advocate that the ICC embed its human rights responsibilities as a business into its regulatory and governance frameworks, which would help it align with best practice in world sport.”
FICA also called on the ICC to “formally order” the league windows in the women’s game to avoid the scheduling conflicts seen in the men’s game before it is too late. Although the overall volume of women’s international matches dropped from 350 in 2019 to 216 in 2021 (largely because women’s cricket suffered disproportionately from the Covid-19 lockdown), FICA has still seen significant overlap between leagues. and bilateral cricket.
Listening to the players is crucial, particularly in women’s football, where 41% of players do not believe that “women cricketers in their country have a clear opinion on the problems of the game.” A total of 44% of gamers felt they had experienced discrimination and the majority of this group believed it was based on gender. Of these, three quarters did not believe they had enough support afterwards.
FICA has pledged to continue “highlighting systemic barriers to the formation of player associations in some countries”, while also warning against tokenism and calling for more funding in women’s football.
