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Girls, uninterrupted

The cricketers, who are in Bangalore for a limited-over series, are busy coaching at universities when they are off national duty. The girls say they enjoy coaching.

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The England women’s cricket team’s status as reigning ODI and T20 world champions has meant the additional responsibility of promoting the game in England.

The cricketers, who are in Bangalore for a limited-over series, are busy coaching at universities when they are off national duty. The girls say they enjoy coaching.

The England and Wales Cricket Board has assigned them the job of promoting the sport among women, especially among the Asian community. “We don’t get much time apart from playing cricket. If we are not practising, we are coaching cricket at universities and cricket is all we do,” says 24-year-old Lydia Greenway.

Isa Guha, the Indian-origin England player, says apart from doing a course in neuroscience she coaches the university team and is also involved in getting the Asian community to play the sport and taking it up as a career. “I am lucky that my parents have been extremely supportive,” says Guha, adding that it’s not the case with many other girls from the Indian community.

“A lot of times we have to convince the girls and their parents that studies and cricket can go hand-in-hand,” says the 24-year-old right-arm pacer. “But things have changed over the years especially after our Ashes and World Cup win; cricket is getting extremely popular among women in England,” added Guha, whose parents are from Kolkata.

Nicola Shaw, however, insists that in England, parents do not have much reservation about girls playing cricket, unlike in India. “Women’s cricket is quite big in England and some of us are promoting the game in primary schools and acting like role models,” says Shaw.

But when it comes to the Asian community, the boys outnumber the girls, she adds. “There is a big Asian community and we try and get the girls to play as much cricket as the boys do,” said the 28-year-old.

With England winning all the major campaigns in the recent past, including the World Cup in 2009, the Twenty20 World Cup, defending the Ashes and beating Australia 4-0 in the NatWest series, women’s cricket is catching on, says Mark Lane, England coach.

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