Sports
FA acknowledges England squad’s period concerns over white shorts
The English Football Association (FA) has released a statement acknowledging that players “will be taken into consideration” for future kit designs after concerns from England’s squad about wearing white while on their period.It was against the backdrop of the tennis conversation around Wimbledon’s antiquated all-white rule that England women’s players, fresh off of their opening match 1-0 win over Austria, were questioned about the classic all-white England kit.
Following the tournament opener, goalscorer Beth Mead said: “It’s something we’ve fed back to Nike, hopefully they’re going to change that [the colour]. It’s very nice to have an all-white kit but sometimes it’s not practical when it’s the time of the month. We deal with it as best we can. We’ve discussed it as a team and we’ve fed that back to Nike.”
The Nike kits England are wearing this summer are bespoke for the women’s team, the sportswear manufacturer having committed to tailor-made kits for all the women’s national teams they supply ahead of the 2019 World Cup.
This tournament is no different for Nike who have provided six nations (England, Norway, Finland, Netherlands, Portugal and France) with custom kits for the Euros. Yet of those six nations, four wear home kits complete with white shorts.
Following a request for comment, the FA released a statement on Saturday which read: “We recognise the importance and want our players to feel our full support on this matter. Any feedback made by them will be taken into consideration for future designs.
“We will continue to work in close consultation with our partners Nike, while still following guidance from tournament organisers where possible in terms of colour choices.”
Speaking after England’s win, Bayern Munich’s Georgia Stanway added: “It’s difficult, because we associate England with white. The home kit is unbelievable, it looks really nice. I think that’s something that we can speak about as a full squad, as a group of girls.”
With women’s football being accepted more and more into the mainstream, the game — just like the wider body of women’s sports — has been slowly breaking down the last remaining taboo: menstruation.A concerted push in sports science has finally begun to account for and research, not just for the specificities of women’s bodies and how they respond to the stresses of sport and training, but the added impact of menstruation on athletes.Beyond the obvious of aches, pains and bloating, the research has been directed into how more susceptible women are to injury during different parts of their cycle.
With this going on in the background, fans have become more likely to hear female athletes talking about struggling with their period. Lydia Ko talked about “that time of the month” in an interview with the Golf Channel while Monica Puig spoke on Wimbledon’s all-white dress code and the mental impact that can have on female players.
According to former England international Anita Asante when speaking to ESPN on the matter, the issue has been raised before in the women’s game.
“I’ve heard people raise this issue before and it’s been shut down, just on the basis of ‘we are one collective so we must all look the same,’ without regarding how it may affect individual girls or women,” she said.
She added: “I think you’ll be hard pressed to find any females who haven’t had an experience when they’ve felt the dread when it’s your time of the month and you’ve got to go play in white shorts knowing that you don’t feel as comfortable in your own skin at that time.
“Ultimately when you’ve got to go out there and perform it can affect the performance because you become extremely self-conscious.”
For Asante, who left the English league in 2009 in search of professional opportunities, the lack of women in the decision making process has left the sport playing catch up, waiting for a time the players feel comfortable broaching all manner of issues that don’t impact their male counterparts.
“I just think it’s taken a long time because it hasn’t been a priority: women haven’t been a priority,” she said. The system of sport itself has not been designed for or to cater to women.
“Obviously, people who run the game don’t think about the kind of holistic perspective of the athletes they manage. Men don’t typically think about these things because it doesn’t directly affect them, that’s the crux of how I see it.”
The women’s game has come a long way from Sepp Blatter suggesting tighter shorts would bring more eyes to women’s football with the top end of the game finally providing women with kits that fit rather than plunging necklines and shorts that wouldn’t be out of place in an MC Hammer video.
However, there is still distance to go in ensuring female athletes have the correct equipment and clothing to maximise their abilities, whether that be breathable fabric or shorts they don’t have to worry about bleeding through. (ESPN)
One time is a shock. Two times, and the second to beat hosts Sri Lanka at their own game, is Zimbabwe. Led by their canny bowling, Zimbabwe pulled Sri Lanka back from a flying start to keep them to 178 on a sluggish Premadasa track. Their opener Brian Benett, quickest scorer in their history, dropped anchor, stayed unbeaten like his team, and Sikandar Raza, Ryan Burl and Tadiwanashe Marumani did all the damage from the other end to seal their second-highest successful T20I chase.
Sri Lanka’s innings had three neat divisions: first 29 balls for 54 for 0, next 72 for 82 for 4 and then a finishing kick of 42 for 3 off the last 19 balls. Zimbabwe went Bennett and non-Bennett. Bennett scored 63 off 48; the other three combined for 102 off 64 balls. Raza was the decisive hand: 45 off 26 after the asking rate had gone past 11.
Brief scores:
Zimbabwe 182 for 4 in 19.3 overs (Brian Bennett 63*, Tadiwanashe Marumani 34, Ryan Burl 23, Sikandar Raza 45; Dasun Shanaka 1-26, Dushan Hemantha 2-36, Dunith Wellalage 1-27) beat Sri Lanka 178 for 7 in 20 overs (Pathum Nissanka 62, Kusal Perera 22, Kusal Mendis 14, Pavan Rathnayake 44, Dunith Wellalage 15*; Blessing Muzarabani 2-38, Graeme Cremer 2-27, Brad Evans 2-35) by six wickets
[Cricinfo]
West Indies headed into the Super Eight of the T20 World Cup unbeaten after successfully defending 165 against Italy at Eden Gardens on Thursday. Spinners Chrishan Kalugamage and Ben Manenti impressed with the ball, and were backed up by some sharp fielding, but the batters couldn’t get the Italian job done.
While Italy exited their maiden World Cup with a win against Nepal and many memories to cherish, West Indies sealed their fourth successive win at the venue where they will face India in their final Super Eight fixture on March 1.
Italy may have sensed an opportunity for another win when they stifled West Indies’ power-packed middle order, but Marrhew Forde’s twin strikes in the powerplay decisively tilted the game in West Indies’ favour. Bowling three overs on the bounce, Forde dismissed both Justin Mosca and No. 3 Syed Naqvi, helping West Indies restrict Italy to 37 for 3 in six overs. Shamar Joseph then bagged four wickets to go with his four catches as Italy were bowled out for 123.
The win was set up by Shai Hope, who hit back-to-back half-centuries and dominated the early exchanges with an array of off-side drives. West Indies lost steam after Hope departed for 75 off 46 balls, but they regained it through their bowlers.
After West Indies were asked to bat first, they hit seven boundaries in the powerplay, and Hope was responsible for all of those. By the eighth over, the West Indies captain had zoomed to a 28-ball half-century. The first boundary by a West Indies player not named “Shai Hope” came in the tenth over when Roston Chase backed away and lifted left-arm spinner JJ Smuts over extra-cover.
Hope peppered the off side, scoring 46 of his 75 runs in that region. Anything that was remotely full and outside off was crashed in the arc between mid-off and point. When Italy dragged their lengths back, Hope was ready for it as well. Like when left-arm seamer Ali Hasan banged one into his upper body, Hope swatted him away over square leg for six in the fourth over. Hope was particularly severe on right-arm fast bowler Thomas Draca, taking him for 20 off nine balls.
Italy finally stopped him in the 16th over when legspinner Kalugagame bowled him with a tossed-up wrong’un.
Brief scores:
West Indies 165 for 6 in 20 overs (Shai Hope 75, Roston Chase 24, Sherfane Rutherford 24*, Matthew Forde 16*; Ali Hasan 1-24, Thomas Draca 1-22, Chrishan Kalugamage 2-25, Ben Manenti 2-37) beat Italy 123 in 18 overs (Anthony Mosca 19, JJ Smuts 24, Ben Manenti 26, Grant Stewart 12; Akeal Hosein 1-25, Shamar Joseph 4-30, Matthew Forde 3-19, Gudakesh Motie 2-24) by 42 runs
[Cricinfo]
Sri Lanka won the toss at the party at Premadasa and decided to bat first. Both, the hosts and Zimbabwe, are through to the Super Eight already, but for Sri Lanka it was important to get in their injury replacements.
The big one, of course, was Matheesha Pathirana, whose tournament ended with a calf injury sustained during the match against Australia. His replacement in the squad, Dilshan Madushanka, came straight into the XI. Also given a look-in was Pramod Madushan, the fast bowler who was already in the squad. In order to organise this virtual bowl-off between Madushan and Madushanka, Sri Lanka rested their lead fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera.
Zimbabwe made no change to the XI that shocked Australia in this World Cup. They were looking to bowl first anyway because of the forecast for some drizzle later on, and hoping to bat in better batting conditions once the lights came on.
Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis (wk), Pavan Rathnayake, Dasun Shanaka (capt), Kamindu Mendis, Dunith Wellalage, Dushan Hemantha, Maheesh Theekshana, Pramod Madushan, Dilshan Madushanka
Zimbabwe: Brian Bennett, Tadiwanashe Marumani (wk), Dion Myers, Sikandar Raza (capt), Ryan Burl, Tony Munyonga, Tashinga Musekiwa, Brad Evans, Wellington Masakadza, Graeme Cremer, Blessing Muzarabani
[Cricinfo]
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