Women’s Cricket and the Honours System
Think about this:
2005: England’s men win the Ashes. They all get an MBE/OBE.
2005: England’s women win the Ashes. Claire Connor the captain gets an MBE.
2009: England’s women win the World Cup. Charlotte Edwards the captain gets an MBE.
2009: What’s betting that if England’s men win the Ashes that they all get an MBE/OBE?
Why can’t all of the members of the England women’s team get an MBE? Surely it’s setting a good example by showing a similar sort of equality between the teams? That and Claire Taylor became the first woman ever to be named one of Wisden’s Five, that deserves a higher accolade too.
Watching Sky Sports’s “Cricket Writers on TV” the presenter, Charles Colville, mentioned this too and one of the journalists said that it wasn’t a big enough sport to warrant it.
But if each member of the side had been given an MBE then it would have been a good piece of PR for both the ECB and the Government, something both need at this moment in time.
They shouldn’t follow the MCC who after 10 years of allowing women to join still only have 62 female members compared to the thousands of male members.
Cricket seems to be moving towards a sense of equality, the ICC World Twenty20 has shown this by having both the semi finals and the final being played on the same day and at the same ground as the men’s semi finals, giving the women’s game a higher amount of coverage compared to what they’re getting at the moment in their pool games at Taunton.
Lets hope that the ECB and the MCC can learn from the ICC in this case…
Chris replied:
Personally they have it right now, just giving an MBE to the captain (though the coach should also be considered). It should be considered an honour to everyone.
Giving an MBE to everyone in the men’s team was a mistake before which i hope they don’t repeat again, which would be a problem if England go on an Ashes winning spree. What happens in the end, everyone gets knighted?
Ideally no sportsman would be honoured until the end of their career, i feel it puts baggage on younger sportspeople.
June 15, 2009 at 10:32 am. Permalink.