Elite sports: The last frontier for the girl child

Last week, Rwanda joined the rest of the world to celebrate International Women’s Day under the theme ‘Achieving an equal future in a Covid-19 world’. For a girl born in the year 2000 and beyond, it may be difficult to grasp why there are not more women visible in positions of prominence in all sectors yet the word on everyone’s lips lately seems to be equal opportunity for the girl child. It will take perhaps another 50 years or so to undo the centuries of deliberate exclusion or underrepresentation of women and girls in most sectors. In the arena of elite sports, however, unique challenges exist. For a particular sport to thrive, a lot of investment both financial and otherwise has to be made. Like any business, the projected return on investment (ROI) determines whether one project is pursued and not the other. That is the dilemma facing elite women’s sports. Today, men’s elite sport is awash with cash with the top players earning astronomical sums and the top teams ripping big from taking part in competitions that provide ever-increasing monetary rewards for advancing to the final stages. Here, I mean competitions like the UEFA Champions League in football and the Indian Premier League in cricket. That is admittedly rarefied territory for the crème de la crème of elite sport. At the lower rungs of the ladder, even less popular games like Darts and Snooker can afford a male professional player a luxurious lifestyle. This is not the case for women. A recent revolution to put professional female athletes on the same pedestal as their male counterparts has faced some serious backlash from naysayers who present the argument that female competitions do not generate as much viewership and related revenue as the male events do. This argument while partly valid, does not present the full picture. Elite male sports events have benefited from sustained investment, advertising and promotion for so many years that have led to their dominant market position today. They also enjoy primetime viewing slots on television, hence perpetuating their dominance. The same cannot be said of women’s events, which if featured on television, usually get what’s left after the men’s events. Tennis particularly has been guilty of this phenomenon in the past but efforts have been made recently to change this due to the advocacy of female legends like Billie Jean King and more recently, Serena Williams. In football, the USA women’s football team caused an uproar in 2019 when they challenged their federation for not paying them the same as the male team yet they had achieved more success on the global stage. This was after winning their fourth World Cup title in less than 20 years. The same argument focusing on viewership and revenue was used to silence them. Cricket is actively working towards changing the status quo In 2020, the Women’s T20 Cricket World Cup final was held on March 8 in Melbourne, Australia, with attendance exceeding 86,000. This was a new record for a women’s cricket event, and only second to the 1999 football women’s world cup in global women’s sports events. When it comes to pay, it is interesting to note that countries that have done the most for their women to try and match what the men earn are also the leading performers on the field of play. Australia, England, India, New Zealand and South Africa – in that order – are the top-ranked female cricket teams in the world. Rwanda Cricket Association (RCA) has made a deliberate decision to support women and girls who choose to take up cricket as their sport, either as a leisure activity or career. RCA provides some funding for girls’ clubs that participate in the women’s league, especially those in Division 2, which are mainly comprised of students that need facilitation in terms of transport fares and meals on match days. RCA has also committed to provide equal opportunities at all age category levels for both boys and girls. Starting 2021, one of RCA’s strategic objectives for the next four years is to use the growth of women’s cricket as a catalyst for Rwanda’s transformation into a successful cricketing nation. The Rwanda women’s team is currently ranked number 7 in Africa and 34 in the world. The specific target is to advance into the top 4 in Africa and among the top 20 globally by 2024. To achieve this target, the Rwandan women’s team is required to participate regularly in international competitions such as the World Cup qualifiers due in September 2021. Team Rwanda will need financial support from the Rwandan corporate sector and the Ministry of Sports, coupled with the moral backing of the sport-loving Rwandans to prepare effectively and go on to achieve these goals. The hard yards are in establishing a platform of sustained success upon which more revenue and sponsorships can be attracted into women’s elite sport in Rwanda. Having built this foundation, it should not be too long until young Rwandan girls of the next generation can dream of rewarding careers in the field of elite sport. Talent abounds in the land of a thousand hills and it is our job as sports administrators to unleash it unto the world. It all begins with creating equal opportunities at all levels. I live for the day that a Rwandan girl will be paid top dollar to wield their skills in the women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) … that will be the day I will know that Rwandan cricket has arrived on the global stage! HAPPY WOMEN’S MONTH! The author is the President, Rwanda Cricket Association