Player of the tournament Bates slams low attendance at Women's WC

New Zealand skipper Suzie Bates, who won the player of the series at the ICC Women’s World Cup by virtue of her 407 runs said that it was a shame that more people did not turn up to watch matches in Mumbai.

“It’s a huge shame that even in the final there isn’t more crowd. In Cuttack, we had a bigger crowd and there was a lot of noise, but it has been disappointing to see the number of people here. The response on TV is much more positive and hopefully we’ll get bigger crowds in the future,” said Bates, who led her team to 4th place at the tournament. The Kiwis lost their third-place playoff against England by four wickets.

The 25-year-old scored 407 runs in seven innings, at an average of 67.83 which included one century and three fifties. She has also taken four wickets.

She admitted that winning some trophy was better than winning none, but also expressed her concern over women’s cricket in New Zealand: “We’re disappointed to come fourth. In four years time, Sri Lanka, South Africa and West Indies are going to get better. And unless we put more resources in the game, we’ll fall back. But hopefully we’ll be able to keep up with rest of countries.”

The Kiwis were touted as challengers for the trophy prior to the start of the World Cup and Bates said that not playing in the final was a big blow: “In terms of exposure, it’s a big blow for women’s cricket to not reach final. It’s a bit of a wake up call as to where we are at the moment and if we don’t make changes, then we may fall back. We weren’t consistent enough and didn’t perform when it was needed.”

Commenting on eventual World Cup winners Australia, she said that one of the main reasons they won was the bench strength of the team: “The Aussies managed to win the tight games. They have a great depth of talent. Just take for example the fact that they dropped Holly Ferling for the final.”