Twitter Thread | A woman lashes out at BCCI for poor facilities at Wankhede and Arun Jaitley stadium, seeks immediate attention

Women’s cricket in India is all set to make a massive stride with Women’s Premier League. The inaugural edition of the cash-rich league, solely for women’s, is being regarded as a step forward towards acknowledging women’s cricket. 

The onus is on Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to smoothly conduct such a high-profile T20 league in the country, but a rich experience of conducting IPL for fifteen long years will come handy to the apex cricketing body in the country. 

However, a Twitter thread highlighting infrastructure deficiency for women spectators in Indian stadiums is raising serious questions and might be an awakening call for the world’s richest cricketing body. 

A woman, who claims to have recently watched cricket matches with her eight-year-old daughter, in Mumbai’s Wankhede and Delhi’s Arun Jaitley stadium, alleges lack of basic facilities like proper toilets, water supply and hygiene at these stadiums and urged BCCI for immediate attention. 

“Hey @BCCI @JayShah  – in the past 14 months, having been a cricket spectator in 2 of India’s biggest cities, along with my young daughter; here’s an experience we don’t wish to encounter ever again: absolutely disgusting toilets in both venues, at Wankhede as well as at Kotla,” she tweets. 

She further claimed that stadium in Mumbai had ‘no operational toilets for women, and the one which was operational had no lights, no water, no trash bin, no toilet paper.’ “I had to explain to my then 8-year-old to not drink any more water until we exited the stadium,” she adds. 

“She pointed out that Delhi stadium had more women toilets working but ‘water pipes connecting the water supply to the flush tanks were missing.’ “No trash cans, no toilet paper. So, the floor got soaked and WCs remained dirty. Stinking mess. Again, rule#1 for women came into effect – no drinking water out,” she added. 

She further stated that women spectators deserve to have basic facilities and they should not be told to ‘stay home, watch the game on TV, be thankful for what we have, “man up”/hold it in.’ 

“It is nothing short of shameful that women spectators are subjected to these conditions,” she tweets. 

While concluding her case, she urged BCCI to ‘take up the challenge of changing your mindset before ODI World Cup, construct functional toilets and hire agencies to manage them.’ “ It can be done right. I hope you will take this suggestion seriously. Thank you,” she concludes.