By Sharanya Gopinathan
So the ICC Women’s World Cup has been in full-swing from the 24th of June. So of course, somebody had to try and spoil it all, and this time, it was Pakistan’s Waqar Younis.
On the 30th of June, Younis took to Twitter to let us know that he felt that 50 overs are a “few too many”, and suggested that women’s cricket teams play 30 over matches instead of 50. Why? Arre, who cares.
https://twitter.com/waqyounis99/status/880537190354173952
Unsurprisingly, his tweet got plenty of angry responses from people who found it patronising. Australian cricketer Jess Jonassen said it was a “little bit offensive and misguided”, and wondered what T20 cricket was for. Australian wicket keeper Alyssa Healey tweeted in response to Younis:
https://twitter.com/ahealy77/status/881231735186436096
Healy was referring to Australia’s recent win over Sri Lanka where Sri Lanka’s Chamari Atapattu scored 178 runs, and Australia’s Meg Lanning scored 152 runs while chasing down a formidable score.
I suppose all the backlash made Younis feel awkward, because he posted another tweet the next day that extolled the virtues of having fewer overs in cricket generally, saying that this kind of cricket demanded a faster pace and resulted in more competitive cricket, along with the meaningful hashtag #AlwaysRespectWomen.
https://twitter.com/waqyounis99/status/880916712861728768
Except, you know, it sounds like a very obvious cop-out: why did he specify that women’s teams should play 30-over matches if all he meant was that everyone should play more competitive cricket? It just makes you wonder, like my colleague did so succinctly, why is Waqar Younis even a thing any more?