Hello and welcome to Stumped, your intercontinental hit of news, features, and debate from the
quirky world of cricket. I'm Alison Mitchell in London, where it is the first week of the
domestic cricket season, which means the world is filled with optimism and hope and of course,
there is a bit of rain around as well. Interestingly, I was in the city for a workshop with a couple
of county and international cricketers the other day about emotional intelligence. It
was hosted by a big insurance firm in the famous walkie talkie building which is right
on the River Thames overlooking Tower Bridge. And it was all about emotional intelligence.
A lot of that about regulating your emotions, which of course at the start of the season
it is very easy to do, because nobody has been out first ball yet, nobody's had a dodgy
LBW decision. It would be interesting to see how the emotional intelligence evolves as
the season goes on. Nice to see you, Ali. Hopes are always high! Brett Sprigg here for
the ABC in Sydney. It's been a big couple of days here with the awarding of central
player contracts. The big winners are our Aussie women: more contracts and more money.
I'm sure we'll talk more about that later on. But with those 41 contracts in total awarded,
everything is now full steam ahead of the Ashes in a couple of months' time.
Good to see you spriggy! You look so professional in that studio set up of yours. Hello, this
is Charu Sharma for All India Radio back home in Bangalore after some extended travel. Some
of it by the way for Stumped which we hugely enjoyed, then a quick trip to the Himalayas
and then to Mumbai to conduct an auction for a 50-plus league, done by a friend of mine
and it's still going on now. So, a lot of cricket action in various ways, but not enough
time to watch the IPL, but there's plenty of time left yet. Good to be back on Stumped and home.
Yep, good to see you again Charu as well and we loved your reporting from Mumbai.
It was really fabulous to have you out there at the WPL. I'm going to actually start by
talking about the volume of women's cricket, because it has increased massively hasn't
it over the last two years, especially with the introduction of the WPL. You've got the
Hundred, there's the women's Caribbean Premier League and then there's Fairbreak as well,
which is ongoing right now. Of course, all of that alongside the much longer running
WBBL in Australia. Well one player who never seems to stop is West Indies captain Hayley Matthews.
No sooner had she won the inaugural WPL with Mumbai Indians, she left India and
flew to Hong Kong for the Fairbreak Invitational. It's a tournament where global stars mix into
teams with associate players and others from further afield, even. Hayley took some time
out from what is a pretty busy schedule to have a chat with us on Stumped and about how
playing for her country is still her number one priority. More on that shortly, but I
began by asking her how it felt to win that WPL. It just went crazy. I think it's definitely
a new level women's cricket, on the field and off the field. When I speak about the
Mumbai Indians family and the experiences we had together just within the dressing room.
You know the type of players that were in the team were great and we all gelled from
the very beginning. When you talk about the cricketing aspect of it, the crowds that were
there were absolutely insane! That play-off match that we had in the semi-finals, there
was about 36,000 people. It was quite quite crazy when you really think about it. And
the level of the cricket was amazing too. Some of the scores that the teams put up,
ourselves included. Had a lot of matches over 350 runs were scored. Yeah, the experience
on the whole was quite insane and just getting to be a part of the tournament and seeing
women's cricket raised to a completely new level. Did you know what to expect when you
were going. You talk about the crowds, but everything else that goes along with this
tournament. What was your sense before you went out there about what it may or may not be like?
I think I definitely had expectations but for sure I could say that they were exceeded.
I think small things like our team room was quite insane. When we went in, it had all
the table tennis tables, you had a massage chair, you had a bar, a DJ booth, a pool table,
PlayStations all around... Who was on the DJ booth, Hayley? We had a lot of people! Amelia Kerr,
she was very famous for the DJ booth! She was quite into it, but that I was definitely
a whole new experience for us. Just the professionalism down there as well with the way that Mumbai
treated us it definitely felt like a big family and that kind of helped us to want to go there
and play even better on the field as well. For you on the field, because you put in a
fabulous all-round performance: 271 runs across the 10 matches, the purple cap. Charlotte
Edwards called you the steal of the WPL. What does it mean to you to hear those words from her?
I'm pretty happy. I think working with Charlotte, she's been a fantastic coach and
I think she has been for years and it's not my first time playing under her. She's just
been great to work under and obviously, my first thing was to get into the WPL and try
to perform as well as I possibly could. Once again, it just exceeded expectations, which
I'll take any day and I'm just really happy that at the end of the day we were able to
go there as a team and perform really well. And I was able to contribute as best I could
to that team success and the biggest thing for me was being able to contribute really
well to the team's purpose and obviously, I think it went really well with the other
performers we had in the team too. You know with Nat, Amelia and our skipper Harmanpreet,
I think we had a really good team all round for it, so, yeah it feels great, I guess,
to perform the way I did, but even better with the players I did it with and knowing that it
helped the team so much to be successful in the end as well. There was an invitation
wasn't there to the Mumbai Indians owner's house. Was that at the end of the tournament
when you won? Or had you had other visits before that? Yeah, we went when the competition
first started and we went in the middle of it as well to go and watch a movie. It was
quite crazy at the cinema. A cinema in the house? Yeah, in the house which was quite
crazy! Mrs Ambani, she's so lovely. The way she treated all of us was pretty special and
definitely made us feel like we were all one family. The visit to the house was definitely
insane as well. It's a pretty big house! Very tall and we're in a bit of a skyscraper but
all really cool experiences that you never really get to experience playing anywhere
else. Obviously, India's special and the way that they treat the cricketers and their players is quite special as well.
To ask you a quite a serious sounding question off the back of
that, it's been such an incredible experience. Do you foresee any knock on for international
cricket? We have already had known some players who have retired, probably towards the back
end of their career after they have already played a lot of international cricket to play
T20 now. Has there been any chat amongst players about 'I might just focus on T20 now.' How do
you feel about it? I haven't necessarily heard anything. I think for me, it's probably
just trying to find that right balance. Obviously, it all comes down to the ICC and the franchises
and try and put together some good schedules over the next couple of years in order to
make sure that players can both have the opportunity to play franchise and international cricket.
I think for me personally, look I'm obviously as West Indies captain, the West Indies is
still my number one priority and I love playing the franchise stuff and hopefully like I said,
there can be some balance between the two of those, where players are still able to
be happy playing both franchise cricket and international cricket as well.
You've gone from India to Hong Kong now, haven't you? The Fairbreak tournament is starting, so no
time in between. Just tell us how this tournament differs to all those others that you play around the world?
Yeah. Just came over to Hong Kong and I've got a couple of days to
regroup and go again now.The Fairbreak competition is one that's mixed with associate players
as well as a lot of international stars, which I think is a really good initiative and gets
those associate players an opportunity to play against some of the best players in the
world. I think it gives us international players the chance as well to have a look at all the
talent that there is at the associate level, which is so much. Last year in the initial
competition of Fairbreak, a lot of us were very surprised by all the talent at the associate
level, and I think competitions like this are gonna be massive when it comes to the
growth of those smaller associate countries, being able to grow, being able to build and
hopefully gaining international status really soon. Hayley, congratulations once again on
winning the WPL and enjoy Fairbreak as well. And look forward to seeing you around the world again very soon.
Thank you so much. That's Hayley Matthews, the West Indies captain
and Mumbai Indians all-rounder. She was speaking to me at the start of a Fairbreak, which is
well underway now and in full swing in Hong Kong. Brett and Charu, just to pick up on
a couple of things she said. First of all Brett, I neglected to warmly welcome you back
to Stumped at the start of the show because Jim is somewhere around a French winery and
fromagerie I think as we speak. So he will be back, but it's great to have you with us.
So she's saying there was she about captaining West Indies and playing for her country is
still her number one priority over playing in this burgeoning number franchise competitions
around the world. I just wonder how you both see the women's model currently and that landscape
of country v franchise - a question which is ever more significant in the men's game.
I think it's fairly apparent that it's going the other way. And we have seen an increase
in players maintaining a degree of flexibility, I suppose, in how they balance their national
commitments and franchise cricket. With that, New Zealand of course had the earliest examples
with Trent Boult and Jimmy Neesham, who turned down central contracts, but still play for
New Zealand when selected and when they choose to. Or you look at a person who we've discussed
in this programme before, Will Smeed, the young lad from Somerset. Now I know he hasn't
yet played international cricket, but he signed that white ball only contract with
his county didn't he last year, which was obviously quite ground-breaking and signalled
a growing divide in the priorities of players across the format. I loved hearing Hayley
Matthews say that, that she prioritises international cricket and remind us that there
is a higher level of integrity that international cricket still means something. But I think
it's up to the ICC and the future tours programme to create meaningful engaging international
cricket. It is all well and good to say that it means a lot to you. That might be true
of this generation, but with every passing year we're ushering in a new era where that's
not necessarily true and that's the ongoing existential theme around cricket's future.
Brett, you've taken some of the words out of my mouth, but at the risk of repeating
a bit. I do think that cricket is not... private leagues, franchises, clubs may not be new
to cricket. You can argue that there was county cricket and many other private leagues around
the world, but it has now exploded. So there are global leagues. And it's still a little
new to cricket and so therefore the current generation are still trained, conditioned
to say I'd like to play for my country first and then only everything else. Remember that
only 15 or 20 people can play for their country. So, yes it's an exalted position, it's still
on a pedestal where you're saying that I'm playing for my country. Yes, you earn a bit
of extra too and yes, there is extra attention In cricket for the moment, I do think that
playing for their country does mean a lot because there's national interest and national
praise and visibility and everything else. But more and more, as Brett said, maybe gradually
sewing in women's cricket, but as you mention Alison, much more so in men's cricket. I think
for that soon to be retired category of players and the fringe players who may consider that
'well, if I'm not going to get to be the top 15-20, then what am I waiting for?' So I think
there's a huge tendency to go towards league or franchise cricket around the world because
after all, if it's to be a profession you have to earn through it. Then whatever the
earning opportunities are, that's where you gravitate and it will happen more and more.
This conditioning that all the current cricketers go through about country first, I think maybe
in 10-15 years from now wherever I play. I play. I ply my trade whatever I possibly can.
And if I get to play with the country, great. Otherwise, I'm quite content to be a professional
cricketer and that's how sport really is in all the sports that have gone professional over the years.
Now, it's been a landmark week in Australian cricket, Brett. You mentioned
it at the top of the show. Cricket Australia announced an increase in payments for all
centrally contracted cricketers, with female players now set to become the nation's highest
paid women's athletes in Australian team sports. All male and female professionals will share
a projected $AU426 million over the next five years, which is a 26 percent increase. 26
percent! Now I know inflation is high, but that's going some way! A 26 percent increase
on the existing agreements and women will be paid from a pool of money worth $AU 89.3 million.
That in itself is up from $AU53.4 million. Brett, just how momentous is this
for the current players, certainly, but also future generations? Yeah, it's big and it's
been coming for a while, Ali. It is firstly incredible to think just looking back not
that long ago, where women picked for their country had have had their own travel costs
in Australia and England. If you debuted say 10 or 15 years ago, you would have experienced
monumental change in the game as far as what's on offer these days. But you're right about
the generations in the future. Look, nobody starts out wanting to be a cricket millionaire.
You do it because you love it. At the age of five or six you don't think about that
sort of stuff at that stage, but you need to be as a sport to sell a dream. And this
tells young girls there is a career available to you, whereby you can support yourself playing
cricket. That simply wasn't true for more than a handful of players as recently as a
few years ago. And cricket needs to be able to appeal in that way, not only for participation
at junior level, but also overall interest. So with that, you bring in more fans and you
ensure the survival of the sport for a while longer. There are still a lot of players missing
out on opportunities and match payments because they have a job they must prioritise and that's
still a large section of Australia's domestic contracted players, but by and large is a really positive step.
How have you seen this help specifically in India, just yet. They've
been helped enormously, the players, by the private money in WPL, but what about at board
level and domestically contracted? Well, for some years now, the BBCI has taken over women's
cricket. There was a separate women's cricket body in India earlier on and they were unfortunately
not getting too much traction commercially, but ever since the BCCI took over, as we know
they're not shy of funds and that's certainly helped women's cricket straightaway because
there was some level of payment. Now that has increased over the years, fairly sharply
and I think the one floodgate that was waiting to open was this discovery of whether women's
cricket can be independently commercially successful. The WPL has played a huge role
in that. Now, the board believes that whatever increases are due for women's cricket are completely
deserved. Collectively, the women are getting much better commercial values and I think
that is from an administration point of view fabulous news. Now they know it's not like
a dole, it actually income the women are earning because of their own standards and presence.
Of course otherwise, because of the sums that women in... well the top Indian women cricketers
earn now, there are so many women taking to the game. I was at auction a couple of days
ago in Mumbai and the gentleman ran it was saying that in their condominiums and these
building societies, they have some small tournaments. Now, there are more women happy to play these
little building tournaments ever before than even boys. So that's some massive move. Of
course, it comes right after the WPL, so there's a dual interest there, but yes. It's a massive
pole vault in terms of what women's cricket is going through in India. It's a huge boom
right now. It was waiting to happen, Alison. We've been talking about it for so many years
on Stumped and this has been a wonderful kick up, the WPL. Well, that's all we've got time
for on this week's Stumped, so my thanks to Brett Sprigg and Charu Sharma and to all of
you for listening. We will see you again next week. Until then, bye bye.