Men who are blue

It was actually more than that. Cricketing purists and pundits are still grinding their teeth,but it was a transformational even historic moment in the gentleman’s game; mainly because gentlemen were no longer its sole custodians. Here,for the first time,women had breached what was a cozy,exclusive male club and cricket and the commentary box would never be the same. From the 2003 World Cup where Ms Bedi made her contentious debut,to its 2011 version,we’ve come a long way,baby. Make that baby bulge. Not only is she back,all aglow in the first flush of pregnancy,but so are the host of other women,from TV studios to the media centre and spectators,who have literally added an extra innings to the sport.

I remember in the 60s,as a wide-eyed kid,watching the India-West Indies test series at the Eden Gardens. The only woman I spotted was a long-suffering wife carrying a XXL tiffin carrier from which she kept handing her husband various items of food and drink every time an Indian wicket fell. In that particular series,with Wesley Hall and Charlie Griffiths operating,it was approximately every five minutes,so he did wind up eating and drinking a lot,and very rapidly. Here’s the thing: when she wasn’t doing 12th man (or woman) duty,she had her face buried in a book. Not once did she bother to glance at the field or the scoreboard. A year or two ago,I watched a match at Kotla and found myself surrounded by female cricket fans. I must admit they did spend time discussing who was ‘dishier’; Zack,Mahi (unattached then) or Gauti – they knew all the nicknames. But for the most part,they were pretty knowledgeable about the game and its finer points. They were no longer outliers; they pretty much belonged there in that crowd of cricket enthusiasts.

My take is that the bold and bountiful Ms Bedi broke the glass ceiling of cricket and she deserves more credit than she is usually given. It’s not just shallow glamour and eye-candy that the women in blue bring to the table. It’s an infectious enthusiasm for the game itself that is neither forced or misplaced and somehow transcends the TV screen. Most males will still grumble and grouse about women anchors on TV cricket shows but none of them will switch channels when they are on. It’s a guy thing. Indeed,baby Bedi may turn out to be a boy but I’m betting if it’s a girl,she will be getting cricket bats instead of Barbies for her birthday. I’m not hot on cheerleaders and similar sideshows but who can argue with Deepika Padukone cheek-to-cheek with Mallya junior at a cricket match? She was a national-level sportswoman before she made her career switch and it sure beats watching middle aged males covered in war paint acting like 10 year old kids.

The (silly) point is that Indian men get into a lather when it comes to women and cricket and here’s my theory on why. Male bonding is all about subjects in which women would not be interested. It used to be corporate jargon and executive briefs but women are now pretty well entrenched in the corporate world. Cars survived briefly but with so many women drivers around,the brakes were put on that. Then it was personal finance and investments except there are more women heading banks than men so another bastion hit the dust. We tried politics but with so many scams erupting,even housemaids are better informed than their employers. Sports was the last frontier,and in India,sports means cricket. Mandira Bedi and co. breached that bastion and now there’s really very little that men can bond over and feel smugly superior and exclusive. In cricketing jargon it’s called reverse swing.