Former Pakistan captain Sana Mir has attacked supporters and critics who are adding a “sexist” element to the national team’s performance in the current Women’s T20 World Cup.
Following four consecutive losses to India, South Africa, Australia, and Bangladesh, Pakistan’s World Cup campaign came to an end on Saturday with a consolation victory over the Netherlands.
In an interview with a Pakistani media outlet, Mir stated that when the national men’s team performs poorly, does anyone suggest that the players would be better off preparing “rotis” in the kitchen?
“I see double standards while talking about the performances of the men’s and women’s teams. I don’t agree with the tone of the criticism. Yes the team has not come up to the expectations but just because it is the women’s team why add a sexist tone to it,” PTI quoted Sana Mir as saying.
Everyone was dissatisfied with the squad’s performance, according to Sana who is commentating at the World Cup, but what worried her was how people talked about the team.
“Even after so many years we still don’t give the required respect to the women’s team while discussing its performances.”
According to Sana, supporters and detractors should consider the challenges faced by Pakistani ladies who want to play professional cricket.
“Our players could not perform the way we expected. It took many years to convince everyone that Pakistan’s girls have what it takes, that they can cause upsets,” she said and also added that the first step was to shift the perception of women’s cricket.
“Until we change this mindset, we will get nowhere,” she added.
Sana also denounced certain people’s use of AI-generated videos on social media to disparage women cricketers and disseminate false information, which caused their families great suffering. The fact that the women’s team’s performance was evaluated based on gender rather than cricket itself, according to Sana, was what hurt her the most.
She questioned whether anyone had heard similar comments about the players, even though the men’s team did not do poorly either. According to Sana, a lot of work needs to be done to increase the number of domestic competitions and broaden the pool of potential in women’s cricket.
“It is true that the players know there is no competition for spots in the team and it does affect their mindset.”
