'It can kill the game' - Tammy Beaumont slams comparisons between men's and women's cricket

Tammy Beaumont, the stylish England opener, has slammed comparisons between women’s and men’s cricket, calling them “the biggest thing that sometimes holds it back”. The comparison between men’s and women’s cricket has been going on for decades, and there have been many who have criticised cricket boards for not taking steps toward for the development of women’s game.

Beaumont made her debut in 2009 and although it took her time to form herself as a major component of the team, she eventually established herself as one of the greatest openers in the world. Her growth in the game coincided with England’s move of increasing the funding for the women’s game in 2014 when Beaumont became one of the 18 players to get an annual contract.

Since then, women cricketers’ graph has only moved upwards as 41 players were provided a professional contract in 2020. While women’s cricket has come a long way since Beaumont’s debut, she believes there is plenty still left.

Notably, the Women’s Sports Trust reported earlier this month that a record 15.1 million were engaged in women’s sports in the first quarter of the year, of which the Women’s World Cup viewership accounted for 13%. Despite only lasting a month and broadcasting overnight owing to the event being held in New Zealand, it was the fourth most viewed women’s competition in the UK.

“The game can absolutely go higher. The biggest thing that sometimes holds it back is the comparison to the men’s game – people saying ‘women don’t bowl 90mph, don’t hit sixes, don’t hit the ball as hard’. It can kill the game,” she said in an interview with Sky Sports

“You need to see it for what it is, see that it is different, judge it for what it is. It should still be critiqued when it falls short as we need that if we want to improve. But it doesn’t help if people say, ‘she wouldn’t do very well against Jofra Archer, would she?’ Those sorts of things really aren’t helpful,” she added.

Great to see pay rises in the Hundred but that’s only for a small part of the year: Tammy Beaumont

Stressing on the need for England to bring the women’s game up, Beaumont gave the example of Australia. “One of the reasons Australia are so good is that they have got 90-plus full-time professional cricketers that genuinely do not have to do anything else to make money other than play cricket 12 months a year,” she said.

“Over here, there are just under 20 England players that can do that but teams in our domestic regional structure have only got about six players each getting paid full-time. It is obviously great to see the pay rises in The Hundred but that is only for a small part of the year.

“The rest of the time, a lot of these players are having to work, coach or whatever to get by. It has to get to the point where your whole squad is professional and can train full-time. That will improve the standard and competition for places,” she added.