Male-centric terms like “batsman,” “fieldsman,” and “nightwatchman” must be removed from the sport of cricket, argues Western Australian Cricket Association administrator Christina Matthews.
Cricket, the popular “gentleman’s game” in Australia, the UK and other commonwealth nations, has recently seen a surge of female players with cricket legend Belinda Clark leading the way. Matthews argues that the ‘sexist’ terms must be abolished in favor of gender-neutral terms to make the game more inclusive.
She proposes terms like “batter” and “fielder” to replace existing terms, and instead of saying “12th man,” terms like “12th” should be adopted instead.
“Here we are, in 2017, using terms such as 12th man, batsman, fieldsman and nightwatchman without a second thought,” she said to PerthNow. She says she wants the issue of gender-specific terms on the agenda after the Marylbone Cricket Club at Lord’s—which sets the laws of the game—refused to change the term “batsman.”
Matthews, who’s also a member of WA CEOs for Gender Equity and a former national cricketeer herself, says that everyone is obligated to steer cricket toward the course of inclusivity.
“In my view, there’s no commonsense reason why (the names can’t be changed). I think it’s just something people have held on to,” she said. “Words matter, and words demonstrate respect as well.”
She claims that refusing to change the terms is disrespectful to half the population.
“I’m not saying people are deliberately trying to offend but it’s a bit like bullying — whether you’re bullied or not is dictated by the person who is on the end of it, not the person who’s doing it.”
Matthews says that young girls interested in the sport do not identify with terms like “batsman” and are put off by the gendered terms.
“It’s going to take a long time to change, but hopefully it will start to happen sooner rather than later,” she said.
It certainly didn’t stop her from playing the game and being good at it, though.
Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at @stillgray on Twitter and on Facebook.
