After Atalanta

Two stories completely unrelated except for the fact that they are both about British athletes. And I have no reason to combine them into one post but I read them on the same day and so there it is. First, did you know that the national cricket team made it to the finals of the World Cup? Me neither. But I don't live in England so I feel I have an excuse. Unfortunately it appears not that many people in England knew either. And that's because it's the women's World Cup. Apparently sport is "the last bastion of sexism" in England where token coverage has been provided during the current event and past World Cups which the national team has won. This is in contrast to the men's team, which has not been doing so well on the international stage. There's an interesting comparison of the male and female captains of both the national cricket and football teams. (HINT: it's about salaries.) Second, Andy Murray, who beat Roger Federer this past week at Indi...

Good article in the NYT about women's soccer (known there as football, of course) in Turkey. It focuses on the lack of acceptance for women's participation in the sport. Turkey has established a women's soccer league and getting people interested has been a battle because, according to the article, "there is a deep ambivalence in this socially conservative, predominantly Muslim society about women playing the game." This article constantly had me comparing the climate in Turkey to the one here. When a writer invokes Islam in the context of women playing sport, there seems to be an automatic response along the lines of "oh, yes, it's so bad there; they are so oppressed." After all, what are things like here in a arguable socially conservative, predominantly Christian society? This spring marks attempt number two at a women's professional soccer league in the United States. Women's soccer fans are crossing fingers, toes, and engaging in any oth...

Since it seems to be okay to write about the Olympics now that they're over (note that the Paralympics are currently underway; Fat Louie at Women's Sports Blog is doing the best she can--given the dearth of coverage--to blog about them); or at least that's my rationale for writing more after the fact than during. Besides, this post is about the Olympics generally not specifically Beijing. There's been discussion all along, as I mentioned recently, about the eliminations of baseball and softball and the attempts to reinstate them--focused mostly on softball. But there's also been some discourse on which sports should be in the Olympics generally. This Canadian columnist shares his opinions on the matter. He advocates for the inclusion of rugby and cricket, which I wholeheartedly support, assuming both can get some of their historical problems with gender equity in order. I have written about cricket's campaign previously. I don't know anything about cricket b...

1. The United States Agency for International Development recently gave a fairly large grant ($95,000US) to the Ghana Society of Physically Disabled Sports. The money will go toward the creation of men's and women's wheelchair basketball teams that will compete internationally as well as a tournament that will assist in identifying athletes for these teams. 2. Cricket in the Olympics? Could be. Honestly, I am a little surprised it isn't there already given its international popularity (not in the US but there are certainly enough countries with viable national teams to create a strong field from the outset). Cricket has been recognized by the International Olympic Committee . But recognition is not any kind of guarantee of inclusion in future Olympic Games though the sport's governing, the International Cricket Council (ICC) body seems to want to work toward that goal. Part of convincing the IOC that cricket is Olympic-worthy will be strengthening the women's game. ...

A few women's sports news bits from around the world: 1. The Women's World Cup in soccer (or football if you're anyone except an American) is underway but it isn't the only World Cup out there as I reported recently. Women cricketers have their own world cup which will take place in 2009 and be hosted by New South Wales, Australia according to a recent announcement. 2. There's a good article in the Life and Society section of the British paper New Statesman about the state of women's athletics in Britain . Quick summary: not very good. The reasons why are explored in the article. Seems girls are worried about their image if they should engage in athletics including being oversexualized or de-sexualized. There are also very few British women athletes who can serve as role models. There also appears to be little effort to change stereotypes by those in charge of sport in Britain who are content with athletics being male-dominated. And Britain does not have an eff...

This weekend women in Bangladesh will compete for the first time in a nationally-sponsored cricket tournament . I know nothing about cricket but I know this is good news because cricket is huge in Asia. A friend reported that people take days off of work during cricket tournaments and spend all day watching matches. Nationalism also reaches high levels during these times which can lead to violence, but I still say it's good news for women cricketers worldwide that another country has decided to sponsor a national team. (The team will be chosen from participants in this weekend's tournament.) Another friend of mine from Sri Lanka told me recently that women's cricket gets very little support. The emergence of another team in the international arena will hopefully garner support for teams that currently exist and raise the profile of the sport.