Why female bowlers get more movement than the male cricketers?

Sophie Ecclestone. Rajeshwari Gayakwad. Lea Tahuhu. Anisa Mohammed. Katherine Brunt. Shabnim Ismail. Ellyse Perry. Megan Schutt. Jess Jonassen. Jhulan Goswami. Nida Dar.

These names mentioned above might be or might not be getting heard day in, day out for quite some time. All these ladies aren’t just lionhearted characters but also the top-brass bowlers going around in the game. 

Okay, sorry. Let me correct myself. They are top-brass bowlers in the women’s games. But is this sexist connotation really needed in our beautiful game? 

A month back, when I switched on my television set, I saw the World Cup being played. I saw one match and another and another and so on… 

While watching that pinnacle tournament, one question stuck in my head. And it indeed brain froze me. 

How do the women cricketers get more drift and swing (that too with the white ball) than those portrayed as the Superheroes of the game? 

What makes the ladies’ different. How can they swing or spin the cherry more? 

To be honest, this question has been giving me a hard time. 

To solve my query, I went browsing on Google and asked the same on Twitter. But to my surprise, the Know-it-All and the Not-so-opinion-based platform also didn’t have the answer. 

The best I got to was, “Female spinners flight the ball more and bowl it a lot slower than men do, with their average speed being around 65-70kph. Male spinners generally bowl around 80kph, and their trajectory is much flatter.” 

But this theory didn’t satisfy me to the fullest. 

As I was sitting scratching my head, my phone buzzed, and I received a text message - “Sup, Arjun?”. That ‘Sup, Arjun’ changed everything! 

A cricketer friend of mine helped me solve the riddle. As the conversation progressed, more sensible pointers were added to the debate. The same friend talked about the size and weight of the ball that is being used in the women’s game. 

After this conversation, I started to connect with some of the people who play the game at some level. My first conversation was with Jaai Dewannavar, who represents Maharashtra women’s Under-19 team.

“The pace of the ball in the women’s game is slow as compared to the men’s game, which gives more time in the air for the ball to swing and less time to cut the air and pass through it,” mentioned Dewannavar.

But how do size and weight impact the movement off the deck or through the air? Isn't 130-135 kpm the ideal speed to swing the ball? - This was my side of the debate. And this too got answered! 

“The ball used in women’s cricket is lighter in weight than that used in men’s cricket. We have seen the lighter ball get some movement in the air, and it allows the bowlers in women’s cricket to swing the ball more,” told Akshay Bhide, a club cricketer from Maharashtra. 

Alright then, but what about drift. Is it all about an oblique angle and the Magnus effect?

“Yes. The Magnus effect and oblique angle to the length of the pitch do matter. But a thousand different factors come into play when it comes to spin bowling,” plugged Gargi Raut, a Vidarbha cricketer.

“Men are faster, and their trajectory is much flatter; they usually bowl around 90 kph. Female spinners give more flight to the ball and bowl much slower, around 60-70kmph. Flight and dip are key in spin bowling,” cited Raut. 

Valuable insight from another friend, Akshayakrishna Polya, who plays club cricket for Bangalore, also helped. 

“Men cricketers use a ball that is 163 grams, while women cricketers use a 140 grams leather ball. So there is a difference of 23 grams in the ball; this is also one of the major reasons females get more movement off the deck and in the air,” Polya pointed. 

“According to me, the inherent difference between men’s and women’s cricket is the size of the ball. Women’s cricket balls weigh between 4.9 to 5.31 ounces and are also smaller in diameter. In contrast, the men’s cricket balls weigh between 5.5-5.75 ounces. This is the primary factor for more swing,” the Vidarbha batter added. 

So is it swing and drift or are the female bowlers similarly adequate at moving the ball off the deck, keeping their speed in mind? 

“No, Arjun! The ladies also move the ball off the deck. But, as we know, we have mainly two types of fast bowlers. The swing bowlers and the seam bowlers. The swing bowlers get the ball to shape in the air because they bowl at a slower speed than the seam bowlers who get movement off the deck,” Bhide said.  

He further added, “For example, Megan Schutt gets a lot of swing compared to Shabnim Ismail or Lea Tahuhu. The reason might be the pace at which they bowl. We have hardly seen Ismail shape the ball in the air, but she gets the ball to move off the deck due to her extra pace. A similar example in men’s cricket is Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s swing compared to Umran Malik’s. So, we can say that the swing is inversely proportional to the speed at which the bowler bowls. As the speed increases, the swing decreases, and the bowlers get seam movement.”

After this whole exercise of one month and a half, I might have or might not have got my complete answer; but one thing is for sure there is more to the game than the physicality of players or even skill. The ladies who play and endorse the sport have more talent in them than all of us combined. And they all should get more credit as they deserve it all.