Jadhav &Raizada (2020): Competitive balance of women in cricket Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17 Survey of Competitive Balance of Women’s Cricket Competition Sanika Jadhav1andShiny Raizada2* 1Student, MBA, 2Assistant Professor, Symbiosis School of Sports Sciences, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, Maharashtra, India *Corresponding author:[email protected] (Raizada) Abstract Background:Competitive balance is an important factor which involves teams that have an equal number of strengths and weaknesses in the league to keep the predictability of the outcome uncertain and cause the league to be exciting. The study aimed at examining the trends of competitive balance for women’s Domestic One Day Cricket leagues over a period of five years starting from 2015 to 2019.Methods: To evaluate the competitive balance of these domestic leagues the five-club concentration ratio (C5) and C5 index of competitive balance (C5ICB) were used. C5ICB is a more rational index to assess the competitive balance of a particular league.Conclusion:Using the C5ICB index, the results exhibited the highest and lowest competitive balance between countries which were New Zealand (107.52), Australia (124.86), England (142.22) and India (167.23). Keywords: Competitive Balance, C5 ratio, C5ICB, One day Cricket, Women’s cricket How to cite this article: Jadhav S, Raizada S (2020): Survey of competitive balance of women’s cricket competition, Ann Trop Med & Public Health; 23(S17): SP231765. DOI: http://doi.org/10.36295/ASRO.2020.231765 1.Introduction: The game of Cricket is a British originated game competed between two teams consisting of eleven players each. The game abides by various units such as bowling, batting, fielding and wicket-keeping(1). Cricket basically involves three formats namely: Twenty-20, One Day International (ODI) and Test Cricket. In Twenty20 and One Day International cricket, the batsmen aim at scoring as many runs as possible since it is a limited overs format while in Test Cricket, they aim at building a partnership and staying at the crease for a longer period of time(2). Women’s cricket came into existence in the year 1745. It has been said that the first ever match was played between the maids of Bramley and Hambledon on the 26th of July, 1745. Later, the first ever World Cup for women was held in the year 1973 at England by ICC. It was an ODI (One Day Internationals) format which is also referred to as limited overs cricket. In this type of format, both the teams face 50 overs each(3). Cricket is a very special game celebrated worldwide and the participation of every country keeps on increases year after year be it men or women(4). For a person to become a renowned cricketer the journey begins from a very primitive stage. To be able to reach international mega grounds such as Wankhede, Lords etc. players have to start their journeys right from gullies and local grounds. After years of hard work, perseverance, blood and sweat which is put in by a budding cricketer, is when he/she is able to make up to the level where his/her name is chanted by millions sitting in the stadium. Therefore, domestic cricket becomes a crucial part for all the aspiring cricketers in their respective careers. Not does is give these aspirants a chance to showcase their talent and ability, but also shows them the correct way of playing the sport. It teaches the cricketers sportsman spirit and most importantly lays certain standards upon which the players are expected to perform at all levels. These guidelines differ from country to country depending upon the governing bodies present in it. Annals of Tropical Medicine & Public Health http://doi.org/10.36295/ASRO.2020.231765 Jadhav &Raizada (2020): Competitive balance of women in cricket Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17 Table 1. ICC One Day Women’s International Rankings by Country as on 29th March,2020 Ranking Position Teams Points Ratings 01 Australia 3945 152 02 India 3747 125 03 England 3568 123 04 New Zealand 2675 103 05 South Africa 3626 101 06 West Indies 1979 82 07 Pakistan 1835 73 08 Sri Lanka 1208 55 09 Bangladesh 542 54 10 Ireland 110 18 Source: Official ICC website(5) The research regarding the domestic ODI tournaments was conducted upon the topmost four cricketing countries and it was observed that: Australia: Australia has been segregated into seven teams based on their regions namely, Australian capital territory, South Australia, New South Wales, Western Australia, Tasmania, Queensland and Victoria. In 2003, the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) was responsible for the functioning of cricketing activities in Australia pertaining to men and the Women’s Cricket Australia (WCA), responsible for managing women’s cricket in Australia merged and formed a single body named as Cricket Australia which organizes the ‘Women’s national Cricket League’ (WNCL), first played in the year 1996. It involves six of the member teams to compete against each other in two 50 over limited format matches. The teams that top each side ultimately enter the finals and the winning team is awarded with the Ruth Preddey cup. The Australian women’s cricket team is one of the most decorated and inspiring teams that have reached to the top by sheer hard work, commitment and passion. England: England is the pioneer for the game of cricket, it finds it’s roots in this country and hence has been supportive of all the formats. English domestic cricket follows a ‘county club culture’ cricket format for both men’s and women’s cricket. At national level a 50 over tournament called the Women’s Country championship is played at a national level by The England Women’s team. England has had this County club culture as a part of its history and has followed it till the present times. The women’s county club is now called as the Royal London Women’s One Day Cup and consists of 18 teams participating in it mostly coming from various historical counties on England. New Zealand: The New Zealand Women’s cricket also known as White Ferns team is also one of the top ranked teams. There are various domestic tournaments arranged by the New Zealand Cricket Board in the one-day format. In the one-day format the ‘Hallyburton Johnstone shield’ is organized for the six domestic teams prevalent in New Zealand. Two back to back 50 overs rounds are played by all the competing teams at every venue and the players especially attempt on achieving to be selected in the White Fern. India: The words ‘India’ and ‘Cricket’ are almost synonymous to each other. Cricket is celebrated in India like nowhere other therefore there are many young aspirants wanting to be successful cricketers, adding to the high level of challenges and competition faced by them in the Country. There are many first class or domestic tournaments played in India. In the ODI format for women there is the ‘Senior Women’s One day league’ started in 2006-07. India has various teams representing many of its states. In this format two tiers are created and the states are divided into 5 groups. Two are the elite group and the remaining 3 are in the plate group. Finalists of the plate Annals of Tropical Medicine & Public Health http://doi.org/10.36295/ASRO.2020.231765 Jadhav &Raizada (2020): Competitive balance of women in cricket Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17 group are promoted to the elite group at the end of the season. Such amount of competitiveness in required in this country considering every third person in the country wants to become a cricketer(6). From a spectator’s point of view the existing competition between two teams is the most exciting part. Banking upon this aspect, the governing bodies organizing the sports tournaments lay down certain rules and restrictions to increase the competitive spirit amongst the teams in order to gain maximum fan attraction thereby generating revenue(7)(8).All the sports leagues organizing sports tournaments keep in mind that there is enough competitiveness between the two teams so that the predictability about the win is uncertain thereby increasing the excitement(8). Nobody enjoys games where there is one team that is superior to other rendering the match to be a predictable one. Hence, maintaining a competitive balance amongst the playing teams is important. Also, there should not be too much competitive balance as well which causes complete lack of prediction of the outcome. Therefore, for the leagues to keep their matches interesting and audience glued to them it’s necessary to strike the correct balance(9). A study was carried out by Michael R. Butler in which major league baseball was taken into consideration and two models of competitive balance were used to test how competitively balanced the league was(10). Overall competitive balance involves all the teams to have presented equal number of strengths and weaknesses in the league to keep the predictability of the outcome uncertain and cause the league to be exciting(11). The competitive balance trend is nothing new in the sports industry. It has been used in several different sports to find out how competitive a league or knockout tournament was. UEFA board responsible for revenue distribution on the European level, gave out 33.9 million Euros between European clubs. This is done in order to keep the competitive balance increasing and attract many viewers(12). Overall, the competitive balance done over decades is important to find patterns and there are many potential factors that affect any league and many such indicators of the competitive balance.