Cricket: A taboo for women?!
Cricket in our society is always seen as a sport for ‘men’. Only ‘men’ can play it be it on a national or an international level. Only male cricket team is recognized and applauded nationally in our society. For women, sports like badminton and table tennis are preferred because ‘cricket requires a lot of strength’ that apparently female can’t have.
Recent advertisements like the one below has challenged this stereotype and have managed to set a precedent for all the future advertisements to present a meaningful message through their product. The add highlights how female cricket players are not accepted for their involvement in the sport by their own families too and how there is a certain stigma attach to it. It also focuses on how the female players must continuously ask for validation from others and support from their parents. The add focuses on how the father of the players always had this fear that his daughter would damage his reputation because of her involvement in the sport.
Another admiring thing about this advertisement is that Sara, the main lead doesn’t give up on her dream whatever happens and keeps on training to be the part of the national cricket team. This is very rarely seen in our society, and it is admirable that a Pakistani company is trying to show strong and focused women in their advertisements too other than showing a woman typically cooking or being a housewife.
This is just the beginning of revolution of advertisements as now people also want to see meaningful messages in these 2-to-4-minute clips as well but these advertisements also leave a lot of questions in the viewers minds as well. Will a woman always be allowed to follow her passion until and unless she is being recognized by it? Would Sara’s father still after some time would have allowed her to pursue this career if she hadn’t been recognized and praised by the society? These questions show us the double standard ingrained in our society where a woman always has to “achieve” or “prove” something to gain respect in this society whereas the men have the respect since the day were born.