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Women’s cricket hits the headlines again

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england women cricket sponsorship, pakistan women's cricket tragedyTriumph for England’s women tempered by tragedy for Pakistan.

Last week saw a momentous shift in the profile of women’s cricket in England.

For the first time the England women’s team has secured a sponsorship deal of its own, rather than hanging on to the coattails of the men’s side.

On 14 July the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced that Kia Motors had signed a two-year sponsorship deal to be the official car of the England women’s cricket team.

Kia will be the named sponsor of England’s home test matches over the next two years; versus India at Wormsley in August and the Ashes test against Australia next summer, and England women’s contracted players will all be provided with new Kia cars for the duration of the deal.

In an interview on the ECB website, Clare Connor, ECB’s Head of Women’s Cricket, said: “This is a historic step for England women’s cricket and I am thrilled to be embarking on this new partnership with Kia.”

This deal is undoubtedly big for women’s cricket in this country.

For the first time sponsors are seeing women’s cricket as an entity in its own right.

We all know it’s cricket, but it is not simply a slower, less powerful form of the men’s game, but a skilful, demanding, exciting sport and deserving of recognition as such.

It has taken a while for potential sponsors to come to the same conclusion, but it seems they are finally getting the message.

So there we were, especially the small (but growing) phalanx of aficionados of the women’s game, getting all excited and slapping each other on the back at the triumph of this sponsorship coup, when news came in from the other side of the world that 17 year-old Pakistan cricketer, Haleema Rafiq, committed suicide in Multan, in the Punjab Province in Pakistan, on 14 July.

Rafiq was a talented fast bowler who had played for the Pakistan national side.

Thirteen months ago Rafiq and four other players accused Multan Cricket Club officials of sexual harassment.

They alleged that senior officials demanded sex in return for being picked for the team.

A two-member investigative committee was set up and the five were summoned to give evidence.

Three of the five, Seema Javed, Hina Ghafoor and Kiran Irshad appeared and denied any knowledge of sexual harassment.

The other two, Rafiq and Saba Ghafoor failed to appear.

The inquiry found there was no case to answer and the charges were dismissed.

The Pakistan Cricket Board gave Rafiq and Saba Ghafoor six-month cricketing bans and Multan CC Manager, Maulvi Sultan Ahmed, filed a suit for 20 million rupees in compensation.

At this point Haleema Rafiq took her own life.

I obviously cannot comment on why the other three cricketers withdrew their complaints or, indeed, why Rafiq and Ghafoor did not. All I know is that Haleema Rafiq’s parents issued a statement that the whole incident had caused their daughter great distress.

I would imagine that many, many female cricketers have had to put up with sexism in the workplace, just as we do in so many walks of life.

Their achievements have been belittled, mocked and generally gone unrecognised until recently. Their talent counts as nothing compared with their looks. One only has to look at the place of women at the MCC to realise what women have had to go through to gain some kind of recognition.

However, I think we can safely say that none of them will have gone through Haleema Rafiq’s experiences. None will have got to the point where they felt their only option was to drink acid to escape it.

It has been a great week for English women’s cricket, but while the England women pose for the cameras with their shiny new Kia cars, perhaps we should be sparing a thought for those who may not be so lucky.

Cricket is such a fabulous sport, and should be open to all to play and to excel at.

Things are undoubtedly changing for the better for women throughout the cricketing world. But we should not lose sight of the fact that there is still a fight ahead for some and much work to do.

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