Tuesday 27 November 2018 15:02, UK
Nasser Hussain reflects on the first standalone Women's World T20, the gulf between the bigger and smaller teams, and the next steps for women's cricket...
The Women's World T20 has come to an end and in general it has been a very good tournament. It is the first time it has been used as a standalone tournament without the men around and I feel it has worked pretty well.
I think back to the Windies vs England game in St Lucia and the scenes at the end in the crowd - the local West Indian community absolutely loved their cricket team.
You can tell that there is a huge future around the world in women's T20 cricket and it is absolutely the right direction for the ICC to have the competition separate from the men's.
The big disappointment for me was South Africa - you have players who play in the Women's Big Bash, in the Kia Super League, but their batting was woeful.
The one question I would ask is about how big the difference is between the 'haves' and the 'have nots'. The difference between the sides that have franchise tournaments, the top-four that got through to the semi-finals - Windies, Australia, England and India - compared to the rest.
There were no upsets, there was nowhere near an upset.
Every time you turn up to a cricket match, men or women, there should be a chance for some of the lower-ranked sides to beat some of the higher-ranked sides and that never was going to happen.
That was the one noticeable thing throughout the tournament - how poorly the lower sides batted.
Bangladesh, for example, bowled beautifully - they had one of the best attacks in the tournament and fielded brilliantly but chasing 105 against South Africa they stumbled their way to 70-5. If that was a men's side they would get absolutely nailed for that.
I do have some sympathy for the smaller sides - Ireland captain Laura Delany did that very emotional press conference when her side lost and asked: "What would the score have been if we were professional and not amateur?"
Before we get too critical of some of these women and teams, just see the hand they are dealt - it cannot be easy. The professional women are strong, trained and in the gym. They work day-in day-out and play franchise cricket.
It can't be a coincidence the two finalist of this year's World T20, Australia and England, have the two best domestic tournaments in the WBBL and KSL.
The top four teams seem to be getting further away from the rest - they are making semi-finals time after time and it is the one area that maybe the ICC can look at.
Look at what Delany said and try and work on those smaller sides and help them improve so somewhere down the line there is the chance of more upsets. That's what the game of cricket needs.
