When Cricket Becomes Secondary to Basic Safety
I’ve been following the recent news about two Australian women cricketers being inappropriately touched during the Women’s World Cup in India, and honestly, it’s left me equal parts angry and frustrated. Not surprised, sadly, but definitely frustrated.
What really gets under my skin isn’t just the incident itself—though that’s appalling enough—it’s the ICC’s initial response that essentially amounted to “well, they shouldn’t have left without an escort.” Victim blaming at its finest. The organisation’s first instinct was to protect itself rather than address the fundamental problem: women athletes shouldn’t need Secret Service-level protection just to walk to a bloody café.
Look, I get it. Cricket is a global sport, and the money increasingly flows through India. The BCCI wields enormous influence, and the financial realities of modern cricket mean you can’t just ignore the subcontinent market. Someone in the discussions pointed out that players aren’t going to refuse to go to India because that’s where the money is, and they’re right. It took a terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team in Pakistan before anyone took security seriously there. Are we really going to wait for something equally horrific before we address women’s safety?
The argument that “if you only hosted tournaments in safe countries, you’d be limited to Australia, New Zealand, England, and maybe a handful of others” is meant to sound pragmatic, but think about what it’s actually saying. It’s essentially arguing that we should accept women being harassed as the cost of doing business in certain markets. That’s not pragmatism—that’s moral bankruptcy dressed up in economic language.
The thing is, this isn’t just about cricket. What these players experienced during their brief visit is, as someone pointed out, a daily reality for women in India. And before anyone accuses me of singling out one country, let’s be clear: this is a global problem. I’ve seen comments from people here noting similar behaviour at beaches in Newcastle and Sydney, with groups of men openly leering at women in ways that go beyond the usual (still unacceptable) casual glances.
My daughter is a teenager now, and I think about the world she’s inheriting. We’ve made progress in so many areas—she has opportunities I never dreamed of at her age—but then something like this happens and I’m reminded how far we still have to go. The fact that elite athletes representing their country can’t walk to a café without being assaulted is a pretty stark reminder that we’re nowhere near where we need to be.
There’s this tension in international sport between inclusivity and safety. We want the game to grow globally, we want to engage with emerging markets, and we want to give opportunities to countries that are developing their cricket programs. These are all good things. But at what point do we draw a line and say that certain basic standards need to be met? If a host nation can’t guarantee that women can move around safely—not with armed guards, just safely—then maybe they’re not ready to host.
The financial argument doesn’t hold water for me either. Yes, India is where the money is. But the Women’s World Cup isn’t generating anywhere near the revenue of the men’s game anyway. We’re not talking about sacrificing billion-dollar broadcast deals here. We’re talking about prioritising the actual safety of the athletes over the convenience of hosting tournaments in countries with massive cricket-mad populations.
What frustrates me most is that this becomes another data point in the long list of reasons why women’s sport is treated as secondary. The infrastructure isn’t as good, the pay isn’t as good, the coverage isn’t as good, and apparently, the safety standards aren’t as good either. It’s 2025, and we’re still having conversations about whether women athletes deserve basic protections.
The ICC needs to do better. Host nations need to do better. And honestly, we as fans need to demand better. The fact that someone was arrested (allegedly) after the fact doesn’t fix the problem. It’s a band-aid on a systemic issue.
Cricket Australia has been pretty solid in their response, focusing on supporting the players and addressing the concerns. That’s what leadership looks like. The ICC could learn something from that instead of defaulting to “well, they should have had an escort.”
I’d love to see women’s cricket thrive globally. I’d love to see packed stadiums in Mumbai and Delhi and Kolkata celebrating the game. But not at the cost of athletes’ safety and dignity. There has to be a better way forward—one that doesn’t require women to choose between their careers and their basic right to move through the world without being assaulted.
We can do better. We have to.