Lisa Sthalekar LASHES OUT at fans for negative comments on Rahul Dravid's latest views

The first match of The Hundred is all set to take place on Wednesday, July 21, 2021, in The Kia Oval Stadium in London. The Hundred 2021 is a 100-ball tournament that will feature 8 city-based teams where each team will have a men’s and women’s squad. Along with the format of the game, the tournament is set to replace the word “wickets” with “outs” and “batsman” with “batter”.

The Hundred batters rule to make the game inclusive

A spokesperson of The Hundred explained in a bid to extend the tournament to a new audience, the term, “wickets” will be replaced by “outs” and "batsman' will be replaced by "batter'. Since The Hundred 2021 will feature 8 city-based teams that will have men’s and women’s squads both, the organizers felt that the term “batsmen” would represent only the men’s team appropriately. Changing the term from “batsmen” to “batter” would be much more appropriate to have a common point of representation for both the genders.

Rahul Dravid's view on changing terminologies

Recently, ESPNcricinfo asked Rahul Dravid about his views on switching the use of the word ‘batsman’ to ‘batter’. Rahul Dravid responded by saying that it would be ideal that the sporting world provides an equal playing field for all and cricket adopting gender-neutral terms should only be welcomed. Rahul Dravid further said that all cricket players and enthusiasts have been conditioned to use the ‘batsman’ because it has always been that way but with the women's game evolving, the use of the word 'batter' is a progressive move.

Fans had mixed reactions to the The Hundred batters rule change as many felt that the word ‘batsman’ and ‘batswomen’ could have also been appropriate. Some fans even claimed that using the word ‘batsman’ for both genders did not make a difference and there was no need to make the game gender-neutral. Some also opined that how this one change would affect all the other male-centric terminologies used.

Lisa Sthalekar responds to criticism

Responding to the criticism, Lisa Sthalekar, the cricket commentator and former Australian cricketer, said that the change wasn’t predominantly aiming at men. She asked fans that wouldn’t they love the game to thrive and more people to follow it and asked them to be more inclusive. For people asking for different names for the genders, Lisa Sthalekar asked the fans as to what their suggestion would be for junior teams where both genders play together and that using gender-neutral terms would only simplify the terminologies.

IPL sticks to old terminologies

Fans are currently involved in the ongoing IPL 2021 where the old terminologies are still being used since only men play in the league. The IPL 2021 will host its Match 13 on Tuesday, April 20 which will see the DC vs MI live telecast unfold from 7:30 PM IST. The DC vs MI live telecast can be streamed on Disney+ Hotstar.

Source: Lisa Sthalekar/ The Hundred Twitter