Woman set to play with men.

England women's wicketkeeper, Sarah Taylor, is in talks to play a number of matches for Sussex men's 2nd XI during the coming summer.
Should women play for men's teams if they are good enough?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/jan/14/england-cricketer-sarah-taylor-mens-match

Hoggy_Bear wrote:England women's wicketkeeper, Sarah Taylor, is in talks to play a number of matches for Sussex men's 2nd XI during the coming summer.
Should women play for men's teams if they are good enough?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/jan/14/england-cricketer-sarah-taylor-mens-match

Well depends if Women have to change in the same changing room as the men!

As long as a man who is not good enough to play for the men, can play in a women's league, if he pleases.

Stella wrote:As long as a man who is not good enough to play for the men, can play in a women's league, if he pleases.

And also is allowed to change in the same dressing room as the women!

What?

No, never. How utterly ludicrous.

Taylor is a super player.

Her 'keeping is already exceptional (though, of course, the slower bowling needs to be taken into account). She's also a top batter, although in a men's match she'd probably bat 9-ish at this stage (at least until we know how well (or not) she's doing).

This is a positive move and something which was sure to happen at some stage. Its perhaps a bit of a surprise that the first female player to play men's cricket probably won't be a spinner now - the one discipline where there is no obvious physical advantage of men.

As a caveat it should be noted that it sort of says she would only play if Sussex II needed a 'keeper at short notice - so she hasn't been selected as such at this stage.

As a barometer of how well she could do we should look at Arran Brindle. Brindle, who bats 5 or 6 for England spent a few years out of the women's game in which she played top level amateur cricket (Premier League). She scored a century and was an important member of her team. Taylor is a much better player than Brindle, and 2nd XI standard isn't always far above Premier League standard so its far from inconceivable that she might go well.

I'll leave the changing room jokes to Boycs and just hope our old friend Skyeman doesn't see this thread!

More seriously, my first reaction was that Sarah Taylor should be allowed to play men's cricket if she is actually good enough. My reasoning being that the barrier should be ability rather than gender.

However, thinking about it more, I'm unsure what Sussex are seeking to achieve - other than perhaps some cheap publicity. A place in a county second eleven should genuinely offer the player an opportunity of gaining (or regaining) a first team starting place. Have Sussex bothered to think through what happens next if Taylor does well and made any plans for that? I somehow doubt it.

I can't help but feel this is more of a gimmick by Sussex rather than a real opportunity for a female to progress in the traditional male game.

Have to say I don't see a problem with this if she's good enough to be picked on merit. Unlike some sports (tennis for example), you can't really argue that women cricketers have equal opportunities for earning as their male contemporaries, so it's fair in my mind for an outstanding woman player to be allowed the chance to try and play professionally alongside men.

Whether she's good enough to be a success is a different question to whether she should be allowed to try.

The obvious (and justified) argument against it is that as men can't compete in the womans game then why should woman be allowed in the mens.

Personally the thing I like about this in cricket is that there isn't as big a reason why women can't compete with men as in other sports. Most sports rely hugely on strength with fitness, speed and coordination coming in behind it. The good thing about cricket is that it's based much more around coordination than strength in which field the differences between men and women aren't naturally that big. The same can be argued for fitness and speed in which there isn't as big a natural difference between men and women as strength.

Whilst I'd wish Sarah the best of luck if she does play for Sussex 2nd XI, I would agree with many that it seems more of a gimmick from Sussex than anything else at this stage. It would certainly be interesting to see how Taylor performs if she does play though...

Actually the big argument against it is that it undermines the womens game. theres plenty of history of womens sports associations being the ones trying to block women competing alongside men.

Especially since they have issued a statement urging caution over the media hyope surrounding this , saying she still has to prove shes up to it. Thats one of the stars of womens cricket who may not be good enough for a county second XI. Perhaps puts into perspective why they arent taken that seriously

Well good luck to her. It takes some balls etc

seeing as this is seconds and she is a wicket keeper, this could work. But to be honest, the only words that cross my mind reading this is "Michelle Wie"