ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Rain gives Sri Lanka their first points

No problem with handshakes – Captains Chamari Athapaththu and Alyssa Healy shake hands after the Sri Lanka-Australia match washout

• No handshake farce spills into women’s cricket

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Over the weekend we had weather at its worst and best in the ongoing ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup matches in Colombo.

Saturday when Sri Lanka were down to meet defending world champions Australia turned out to be a damp squib as the weather pattern suddenly changed to produce one of the worst downpours forcing the match to be abandoned without a ball being bowled. The result was that Sri Lanka and Australia collected a point each. For Sri Lanka it was their first points on the board having lost their first match to India, while Australia went to the top of the table taking their points tally to 3.

Sunday saw the two cricketing giants of Asia, India and Pakistan clashing. Thankfully, the weather kept away even though there were dark clouds hovering around at the beginning, but gradually drifted away allowing for a full game to be played.

Never has the toss become the subject of discussion, since the men’s Asia Cup in the UAE last month. The refusal of Indian Captain Suryakumar Yadav to shake hands with his Pakistani counterpart Salman Agha and subsequently India’s rejection to accept the Asia Cup from the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) President Mohsin Naqvi, who is also the Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman and Interior Minister of the Pakistan Government, sparked off a series of criticism from past Indian cricketing stars and several other international cricketers from around the world.

In the Women’s Cricket World Cup game between India and Pakistan there was much expectation at the toss whether the Indian Captain Harmanpreet Kaur would extend her hand to her rival Fatima Sana. But unfortunately Kaur decided to follow her male counterparts and totally ignored her opposite number after the toss, thus extending the farce of not shaking hands into the World Cup.

No handshakes – Captains Harmanpreet Kaur and Fatima Sana at toss during India vs Pakistan match 

If India is so emotional with what took place between the two countries at Pahalgam, why play Pakistan at all. There is no necessity to bring their emotions into the sporting field and make the game of cricket a circus for such inappropriate conduct. By doing so they are only spoiling the cricketing atmosphere that exists at such sporting events. Also with a worldwide audience following the Women’s Cricket World Cup what is the message that India is giving to the younger generation by such demeanour?

To come back to the game, Pakistan cut a sorry figure losing the contest to India by 88 runs to suffer their 12th successive loss to them in as many matches and their fifth at World Cups. The two points India gained from the win pushed them right to the top of the table with 4 points after 2 matches followed by Australia (3), England (2), Bangladesh (2) and Sri Lanka (1) with the other three countries yet to secure a point.

Strangely enough Sunday does not seem to be a good day for cricket for Pakistan in contests against India. They have lost four matches on consecutive Sundays – 14 September Asia Cup group match, 21 September Asia Cup Super-Fours, 28 September Asia Cup Final, and 5 October Women’s Cricket World Cup fixture.

The World Cup matches moved to Indore yesterday and to Guwahati today, before returning to Colombo for the Australia v Pakistan game on Wednesday at the R. Premadasa Cricket Stadium.