Women's sport (cricket and football) is skillful but not watchable over long periods for a casual fan

 Women's sport has come a long way over the last decade while growing exponentially in terms of viewership and revenue. It has been evidently noticed how well women's sport has expanded with efficient structure and management, what you may forget is that men's sport has also been growing rapidly with technological advancement and globalisation. The Women's FIFA world cup final in 2019 had 1.2 billion viewers which is frankly an insane number, while the Men's World Cup in 2018 had 3.5 billion viewers, meaning every second person on the face of this planet was watching the men's finals. While the gap has reduced over the years, my understanding is that this gap will always remain.

         I believe that there are two types of fans; one is the casual fan who watches sports casually just for entertainment and enjoyment, while the other is the analytical fan, who watches all the matches with an eye for skill, technique, tactics and of course entertainment. The main difference between men's sport and women's sport for a casual fan is speed and power, in football, it's about watching a Ronaldo run at an incredible pace and go past defenders like they don't exist. In cricket, it's about T20 cricket and how Chris Gayle can hit a cricket ball absolute miles without dropping a sweat. Obviously, there is more to cricket and football than just speed and power, but the casual fan normally watches it not to learn the sport but just to be amazed by it. A bit more context to my argument, the fastest ball bowled in women's sport is 128kmph by Shabnim Ismail of South Africa, while the average pace in women's cricket is about 110-120 kmph (approximate). The fastest ball bowled by a male cricket is 161.3kmph by Shoaib Akhtar of Pakistan, with the average being about 135-145 kmph for a seamer. Looking at facts from an objective lens, if someone has regularly watched cricket at a quicker pace, why would they go back watching it at a slower pace. It's the same with football, the proportion of Indians watching the English Premier League to the Indian Soccer League is very high, the reason being the quality of the game, it's quicker and tougher and makes for a better watch. 

Source: https://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/57411947

             I have been following the Indian women team for about 6 years now and watched most of their matches home and away. Smriti Mandhana's is India's opening batter and her cover drive is as good as any left-handed male batsman(rivals Ganguly for me), while Shefali Verma's mental strength is mind-boggling for a 17-year-old. These are skills that I have noticed because I watch women's cricket day in and day out from an analytical point of view, but the casual fan wants entertainment (pace and power) which the women's game doesn't guarantee regularly. The fact of the matter is that cricket and football fanatics like me would probably watch the sport even if Mithali Raj is playing gully cricket and enjoy it but people like me are a minority and the big bucks generally come in when a casual fan is watching over long periods to make a difference. World Cups are one such event where people follow their team throughout the tournament because they are patriotic and want their country to do well, but these events are rare and happen once in 4 years, unfortunately not enough. 

        My problem isn't with the fact that women's sport is not entertaining in the way that men's sport is, the issue is in the fact that the comparison needs to stop for women's sport to grow an individual product. Every time a brilliant catch is taken by a women's cricketer, some people have this psychotic behaviour where they are like "Oh, this is one of the greatest catches, men or women", the moment you start comparing, you get into a battle which you are likely to lose because something that is a rarity in women's cricket is a regularity in men's cricket. My views are limited to cricket and football only because I have watched these sports extensively and have a fair understanding of these sports.  

PS: This blog is not meant to demean women's sport in any way, but to help understand it better for the product that it is (a brilliant product) and not for it can be made into. Also, I will not apologise for my views.