Mumbai: While the men taking part in the ongoing ICC T20 Word Cup flew business class to India, the Eves, who are also competing in a parallel tournament, flew economy.
Cricket boards of a few of the participating countries have protested to the ICC regarding this.
While Cricket Australia paid the fare difference and flew Meg Lanning and her girls in business class, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and New Zealand Cricket Board could not afford to do so.
Diana Edulji, the voice of Indian women’s cricket said that the ICC should treat both sexes equally as they were competing in the same tournament. She said, “It is very wrong to treat women players in this fashion. This has been an old practice but times have changed.
“As a manager of the India’s women team in 2009 for the T-20 tour, I had brought it to the notice of the Indian cricket board but nothing was done.” “We were not travelling in a direct flight to England and had to wait eight hours at the Dubai airport.
“As we were not travelling in business class, we could not use the lounge,” she added. “Cutting cost may be the motive of the ICC but this is not a fair way of treating women players,” she said. The ICC, however, is likely to change this policy for the next big event. If this happens, women’s teams in 2020 would be travelling to Australia by business class.
