 So what's next on the agenda is a very interesting panel next panel is about women's sport So first of all a hearty welcome for to all our panelists and it's great to see you in person I haven't met you before on on screen. Yes, so happy to do that and Yeah, so moving on to our Panel about women's sport and a lot of references have happened over the past few panels and It's like building up towards a sort of finale and so let's give them a grand finale here How things have changed? and all for the good one hopes if we look at women and From gender stereotypes of pre-desided gender roles to A place where in in the score in the span of less than maybe month month and a half We'll be hosting one of the largest women's sporting event in India if I go a little bit Few months behind and look at towards the end of middle end of last year Sporting ball boards have taken the pages out of the right book and our men and women are supposed to get equal pay for Doing the same kind of hard work on the sporting arena and and we are talking about cricket, right? If we look at the popular culture popular Genre like Bollywood some of the biggest blockbusters and grosses Have been about women triumphing on the sporting arena whether it's hockey wrestling Boxing so on and so forth. So there is an acceptance. There's a growing awareness and This is what the story has been so far But what next? How do I how does one keep the momentum alive? What are the plans for the future and? How do we encourage? nature and grow talent What are the structural changes what are the infrastructural changes that are required and I'm hoping we can delve into some of these You know people talk to a sponsorship Investments etc. So we do realize funding becomes extremely important and and funding is important both for the sports that are played by men as well as women and The most popular sports that is cricket as well as the other sports and I'm hoping you will be able to shed some light on some of these topics There is a critical role for all enablers and some of the stakeholders Representing them are both enablers and sponsor are here whether they're broadcasters platform owners data aggregators media strategy store corporates and we must create a win-win situation for Everyone I mean there's no point crying and saying oh, you know all money is cornered by men's cricket We'll have to find ways of means of making it win-win for everybody here and here. We are talking about sponsors rights holders Federation and Puy Lila Gopichans are in the morning talked about saying that let's not forget the entire spine of support The support system that goes in and how do we enable coaches the support? How do we help them those become important and of course most importantly the women's sports person the sports women's sports women and sports women I'm glad that today. There's a very interesting mix of people in the room Who can we cannot we have 45 minutes in which I'm sure we cannot touch everything that I would have loved to talk About but at least some of this crucial aspects we should be able to cover and I want to start with Yuyash The grammar of most sports says catch them young. Okay, and in your case I think your commitment your journey with sports started rather early when you are in the engine in your engineering college in Pune I heard that you know and we read about the fact that you were engaging during the 2017 women's World Cup Where we just missed lifting the trophy. We did a damn good job women's Women are women did a damn good job. You were engaging that and then from that to women's Creek zone, that's a jump. That's a transition. So What I want to ask you when you were Tweeting at that pointing time to now And this year's has the moment of change in women's cricket from the time We just missed lifting the trophy in England to now. I Think so a lot has changed In 2017 if you would have done this summit, I don't think so we would have had this topic of women's sport and Nearly every panel that we had since morning is been talking about women's sport has been talking about women's cricket It's been talking about women's IPL So of course a lot has changed that particular incident wherein Nobody expected India to be in the finals. They went to the finals of course lost by just nine runs that changed a lot of momentum that Put put it For all the people that yes women can also play women to play cricket a lot of people didn't even know that Women's cricket existed. So that changed a lot of things and from there To our women representing different franchise across the globe To now having our own franchise competition, which is now the second most valued League in the world after the men's IPL only I think so a lot has changed You are definitely a flag bearer for diversity equity and inclusion because your for a has not just been limited to Women's cricket so from women's cricket zone, you've moved on to women's Sports zone And my question to you is is it a different ball game all together? Literally or there are similarity differences or and some learning that you brought from your experience of running women's cricket zone to sports zone Yes, experiences I have brought in some experiences definitely But it's still a completely different ball game because when it come when it came to women's cricket because Cricket as a sport everyone knew like 90% of our audience any which was watches cricket So they know how the sport is played anything and everything to do with it So it was easy for people to just say that okay There's another gender which also plays the game when it comes to women's sports because most of the people That I know or in general as well do not follow a lot of sports. So There it is more about educating people that this is a sport that that is played So for example had Bhavani Devi not come We wouldn't have known about fencing. So that's how it is. So it is about first educating Everyone about okay, there is this sport that exists how it is played Then to create role models when it comes to women's cricket, okay, that education part was not needed It was only directly creating role models revenues broadcast this that when it comes to spots on It's very different because there are multiples of sports. You need to teach them And yeah, so for India to become a sporting country You will need to teach them young because the younger you are taught It's easier for people to pursue that particular spot Thank you and with that I would like to move to you Vishal so Sports like life is all about perfect timing, right? And BC says decision to implement Equal match fee policy for international appearances for men and women Cricketers is a welcome Welcome step I would say but in this day and age This is something which is seen as being normal for any egalitarian employer So my question to you Vishal when you started female cricket way back in 2016 To now I mean almost seven years next month is going to be seven years for you from What is the change you have seen in this journey? The way it is perceived It's a similar question to what I had already asked Him, but I want because you work with the young girls. You have an academy I wanted you to give me a perspective from that angle as well Sure Thank you for that question Moshmi and it's a very interesting question. I and I get this question asked a lot How has women's cricket changed over the years and like you know Yes, explain that there has been massive strides Apart from the equal pay policy which was recently announced and now a y-com 18 women's IPL a lot has happened And it's out there on the internet. It's out there on the social media out there on the TV and being discussed over and over again But to understand what has changed we also got to Look at the past and know the question is what is the future of women's cricket? We also need to understand what has happened in the past Because only then you will be able to sort of correlate and Compare as to how far we have come from where we were in 2015 2016 now just to quickly give you some analogy and I've had the fortune of talking to the greats like methali Rajul and Goswami and They shared one of those anecdotes where they mentioned that you know back in the 90s and early 2000s They had no facilities. So the basic facilities like travel and transport They used to travel unreserved in local compartments They used to stay in one dormitory year and all the 15 20 members accompanying a tour would be you know Put in one dormitory and they used to manage their stays the players were asked to carry their own linen carry their own floor mats carry their own blankets In order to cover themselves and that was the situation back then to now You know a lot has happened now players they get to travel business class the players are made to stay in five stars and Apart from apart from that, you know women's cricket at the grass root level has also changed a lot So what happened was like, you know, yes Also touched upon the fact that 2017 women's World Cup the ODI World Cup we lost by nine runs But we did Win in lot of aspects and one of the aspect was that women's cricket became mainstream Particularly in Indian context what happened was by this by this time We had some decent amount of social media audience Because we started in 2016. So by 2017 this World Cup was happening. We had close to 10,000 Odd followers on our Instagram handle and I remember the next day and this World Cup final was on 23rd of July 2017 and I remember 24th of July waking up With hundreds of DMs on our Instagram and everyone asking the same question, which was how do I put my daughter to cricket? How can I put my daughter into professional circuit and the daughters had this question? The girls had this question. Where can I start my professional journey from which is the best cricket Academy? which is the best cricket club that I can go and join and Unfortunately, I had no idea because it was a new beginning for me. I had all my life played Cricket in a club where I used I used to only see boys and there would hardly be any girls there So I had no idea and I had no answer to this question So it took me around two to three months to actually figure out Go meet some of the coaches and ask for some relevant answers to to their questions At the end I did not find any single Academy and that forced me to start my own cricket Academy Which was exclusively for female cricketers as Moshmi pointed out the name is female cricket Academy And we have trained over 400 girls in the last three years only in Mumbai alone and Thank you And mind you again This is not an achievement the the other side to the story is that we have got over 4,000 inquiries coming in from tier 2 and tier 3 cities of the country which Unfortunately at tier 2 and tier 3 that do not have infrastructures in metro You'll still find academies you'll still find cricket clubs where there are boys training and the girls can be accommodated there But in tier 2 tier 3 when you go there in rural parts of the country, they don't know where to go They don't know what the pathway to the national setup or the pathway to domestic cricket looks like and the parents are clueless because again No awareness no clarity of thoughts Now cut to 2023 six years Massive strides now women's IPL is being announced and that opens up a lot of opportunities opens up a lot of doors Because that ensures the girls will now be financially paid whoever gets picked in the IPL of course But again, I can go on and on it's seven year long journey But I'll leave the rest to the other panelists to to touch upon those points Seven years long time a cricket academy for girls Very curious question. I mean you say it's in Mumbai, but you're attracting talent from tier 2 tier 3 towns When you talk to girls Who want to play cricket in cities to when you talk to someone in a smaller town or a village? What's the difference you find in their attitude? In the way they approach the game And how important Importance is it from a financial viability perspective? Again, so again, that's a very interesting question initially when we began the idea was to Take female cricket and this infrastructure to far corners of the country, but again, there were a lot of limitations and a lot of Constraints that we had because again, it's a startup. So you got to Look across each and every aspect if you want to expand the academies and centers Coming back to your question now, Moshmi the very common thing or the most important aspect that we have realized The girls in the metro cities they have other avenues They have they have other opportunities and that is that also leads to a lot of distraction The girls in tier 2 and tier 3 and rural know they have a point to prove Firstly, the parents are still in that conservative mindset They would not readily let their daughters to go out and explore some some of the other sport So they have to fight there and that is the biggest hurdle I guess especially in the tier 2 markets and tier 3 markets if you can convince your parents if you can convince your relatives You have won 90% of the battle after that The majority of the task that is left is you go and perform and you you know make your up way to the ladder in the Tier in the metro content in the metro cities and metro context There are ample of opportunities. There are ample of Challenges and that also is that that is also because there's a lot of competition out here So say in Mumbai, you know more than five lakh girls a play cricket in in Mumbai alone but eventually 15 or 20 makes it to the state side, right? And then you have under 19 under 23 and then seniors team So say maximum 50 girls who gets to play at the elite level who gets to play represent a certain state But what about the other talents? What about the remaining talents and they are left behind and that is where the motivation eventually dies That is exactly what we have seen at female cricket Academy also The girls who joined us in the first batch in the second batch, which was in 2017-18 They did not continue it further in 2019 batch and We had hard time convincing the parents and the the reason that the parents gave us was We don't think that the girl will that our daughter will eventually make a future in cricket That's the reason why we are taking her out and we would rather put her in some academics or we would rather Ask her to you know take up some professional with professional course which ensures that there is some stability there's some Job opportunities that opens up In tier 2 tier 3 markets once like I said the initial hurdle is crossed You know and because there's not enough competition out there There's high chance that the girl can make it to the state side and once she gets there now There's ample of opportunities likely that she can get into the India sector and You know could probably play play for the country So that is the starking difference which we have seen in tier 2 market and the metro markets You raise some very, you know critical crucial points about why women drop out of sports and we'll address this in Going further down the line I want to now come to you say 951 crores 951 has become the most quoted number. I think that one is for luck So that's the five years rights, which vayakom 18 has picked up the media rights I know it doesn't compare to the 8,200 crores Which Sony spent to get the media rights for men's IPL in 20 No, 2008. Yeah, but it's a beginning and like everybody has been pointing out is the second highest ever it's a beginning and This question is to you as the brand custodian of a brand that has a legacy of advertising in men's cricket How excited are you about the fact that? IPL for women's cricket is I don't want to call it WIPL. I think we do it injustice when we call it WIPL I'll call it IPL for women How excited are you about it and should the Marketing fraternity be gung-ho about it and what are the reasons you think they should be gung-ho about? So, thank you so much first of all, I like to congratulate Vishal for doing a stellar work in this space So I think working at a grassroot level is I think one of the best things that can happen So thank you so much So coming back to the point, you know, how excited We are so personally if you ask me, I am super excited because I'm I follow cricket very closely and when I say cricket it's cricket not men's cricket women's cricket and And I've been before IPL also been very closely following the big bash league for women's so like know the kind of I'm not sure how how many of you know Harden people was in one of the seasons that the top scorer And last season for the top scorer and you know, so that's that's how the Evolution is already started and I think it's it's it's it's extremely heartening that it's come to India now That that's that's on a personal note, but as a marketer, I think It's not the first time that We as a brand policy bizarre as a brand Will be thinking of investing in in cricket women's cricket Back in 2017 when I think we spoke about 2017. You know, that's when the men's champions trophy were happening and Just as a at that point of time We thought you know and the women's champions trophy was also happening at the same time similar time so we invested in the women's champions trophy as well and and I clearly remember the Sunday was the final match and Monday morning when I'd come back to office my business said I'd come and said at key What did you guys do this Sunday? Why is the traffic so so much high and and we could and and and we went back and map The data with what happened during the match time and we could see some like huge spikes not as compared to What a men's final during that time India Pakistan was a men's final was there but at the cost at which we got that that tournament and and the kind of results that we got it was like We couldn't even imagine so since then, you know, like we evaluate any other Media property we will have evaluated women's sports or women's cricket also in the same lens and and and invested in it with conscious cautious efforts thinking that you know, we want to obviously It you know one one lens could we know we want to support women's sports But at the same time, you know as a market when you're having a market is had you need to evaluate the property on its merit So so it's not that that one should not get carried away with that So what that lens should all do and people who have worked with us? There are a lot of them in the room They know that you know how closely we, you know track the The numbers and everything so so what needs to have that balance and coming back to IPL, I think it's it's gonna open a open dose for a lot of brands and a lot of marketers are going to use this opportunity mainly because a know what when IPL for men's happened we could clearly see that you know, it was not just men who are watching cricket and it was the ratio of women had also increased and When we go back to our own data when we advertised on IPL men's IPL at that point and we could see this the share of Women's generating Traffic on our side also had increased. So, you know, that was a very positive sign. So so I think Cut to women's IPL I think it will bring in an absolutely new range of Customers and absolutely new customers or new Audience to this platform. I think that will be super exciting and it will be a great space and looking forward So I think when it comes to cricket, it is still an easier answer and it's an easier question I won't say easier but to that extent Moving to other women's sport other kinds of sports for India 2023 and 24 are very exciting We have the Asian games. We'll be having the Paris or Paris Olympics next year if you look at the Indian contingent, it's likely to be a 50-50 in terms of gender ratio and If you look at the depth of talent the women talent Will be very well represented represented in sports like badminton wrestling Hockey so on and so forth Weightlifting so my question to you is we have been seeing the sports body supporting and clearly the broadcasters are Putting the skin in the game When it comes to other sports, when do you think? The marketing fraternity will join the party No, it's not that marketing fraternity has not joined the party I mean there are brands who are advertising on other sports apart from cricket in India at least the Not at the same investment level because also you should you should understand It's not that the marketers want to spend more money on a certain sport. It is what the How the how it is priced, right? So we buy what is being sold to us. So it's not that, you know, you can never kind of you know You should never say that, you know, you spending so much on cricket But that is the price of cricket means cricket, you know, you can't do much about it, right? If I have to buy that I have to buy Take a 15 lakh rupees per sport. That's what that's how you guys sell it, right? So if And and therefore the reach also comes accordingly. So I think coming back to your point I didn't know if you look at so look it's It's very easy to say that, you know Cricket is where you Invest and you don't invest in women's cricket, right? Women's other sports right now, but that's at least for us. That's true for Any other men non-cricketing sport also So our larger spend goes towards cricket and other sports is much much lower at the moment The same thing is happening for women's sports as well But so would you say it's an ROI question because because Crickets corners also a lot of money or your budgets are there and yeah Cricket does corner a lot of money, but at the same time, you know At least in the last two IPLs at least we have not invested because we feel that you know, it is it's becoming super expensive It's super expensive and over a period of time or also, you know As a brand we have matured a lot and it might not give us that kind of incremental reach for the monies that are being commanded So therefore so therefore an opportunity like a Women's IPL or any other non-cricketing women's sports if rightly priced why not you have a new audience coming there You could rightly price. I've always said this Non-cricket sports if it rightly priced Why will a marketer not buy it? You know, it's it's absolutely it's it's it's the decision is very very binary It is if it is rightly priced if it's going to give me an incremental audience Why will not buy it? I want new audience So that's how you know as a marketer we think Coming to you yes, I know we had discussed this and you you had a point of view on this and I think it is also a question of consumer traction where Where you have consumers you will have brands moving there so men's cricket versus any other sports the uneven I won't even call it a balance the uneven tilt Brands is there a way in which you think that? Brands can benefit. So I has put a point of view Do you have a point of view in this because I Remember you wanted to talk about I agree to size point because what he's put is very right that if you're if you Have rightly priced something and there's a new audience. Why would the brand not come on board? But at the same time, I think so some Multiple panels happened just before this and a lot of people also put it in this way that Right now is the time to invest in sports and not sponsor sports. So as brands They they can look it at in two ways say an ROI based where in yes You get these numbers you get this new audience and you are basically putting your brand in front of them And the second one could be that Yes, I'm investing in this sport. I'm investing in this athlete or something like that And that's how the growth model happens. So a straight example is Odisha doing for hockey a lot of states or a lot of Brands could do it for one particular sport and I think so As simple as that any and every sport will grow I also have one very straight simple example that I've been seeing in cricket itself. So for example You go and see any men's cricket match right now. There's an Indian New Zealand game happening on the ground itself You'll find at least 50 brands advertising. So it's it's a clutter Like after the match, I don't know how many brands have that recall value that yes My brand was there. How many people recall actually those kind of things happening Whereas when I saw a women's cricket match with we need was mentioning last month and India Australia game in Mumbai it was only Mastercard who had advertised and Everyone that I spoke after the match or even before the match remembered that Mastercard was the advertiser and they haven't they had an hashtag and everything and everyone remembered it So I feel it's more about quality also than quantity So you have to also see it in multiple lens as possible and then And I feel if if every brand starts supporting say one sport or any one state Adopts a particular sport. That's the easier way to grow that particular sport So when we say supporting it means not supporting just as advertising because but supporting a sport as putting your skin in the game Investing in this board infrastructure, etc. I think I kind of agree with what you just said A lot of times, you know marketing fraternity can be blamed for this because you know a lot of times what we do is You know, we do a lot of movement marketing when something happens at that point of time We just latch on to the like latch on to that movement and do movement marketing like recently. This is dominos episode where The someone the woman who won the boxing championship She said, you know, the one thing that I want to do is eat pizza and you know Dominos went on and said, you know, we'll give you lifetime free pizza So I think it's very post factor. But what yash is trying to say is that, you know, can you Be with a sportsman through the journey and build the brand accordingly. I think somewhere, you know But a lot of sporting brands have done that it's not that they've not done it a lot of sporting brands have done it And I also like I would like it's not just marketing responsibility. I also feel that, you know Long long time back when Sachin was just about becoming the star. He was there was world tell who was Backing him and positioning him to the brands. So I think I would love to see a lot of This fraternity kind of, you know positioning women sportsmen to the brand and say that no, this is your brand This is because at times, you know Look, we take decision when is something like this is brought to us You know, so so when when that that need to start happening, I'll tell you very very give you a small example At least at least that thing is changed now few years back when the plan used to come to us When the men's cricket plan used to come to us It used to be bundled with women's women's cricket So I'm saying, you know the chain needs to start at Your end also, right agreed and with that I would like to move to yannick My first question to you is okay fans are most important and fancour has been in democratizing this entire space of anything that doesn't get broadcasted get streamed So, um, you have a lot of experience in this and you're foreign Into this very exciting area of live streaming the league matches of the women's under 19 world cup Clearly walking the talk when it comes to promoting women's sport What are expectations in this area yannick for this series and what have you been doing in the past in fan code fan code? Which has really been bringing women's sports and women's cricket to the forefront Yeah, I think you know When I started fan code about three and a half years back our prime reason for existence as a massive sports fan was that I felt that 95 percent of sport in this country was underserved Every broadcast was running after this five or six events across the year spending tons of money on it And everything else was getting more coverage. So when you talk about women's sport We talk about hockey football everything else. So we started saying that there's this massive co-fan base It's not in the hundreds of millions. It's in the tens of millions who have Strong affinity to sports. So there's rugby football, athletics boxing And various even other forms of cricket So when we build up the platform that we build we say we'll use digital to get to these niche audiences and essentially build Affinity around them. So women's cricket was something Which was extremely important women's sport across everything was extremely important one little selfishly As a father to a 80 year old girl I I genuinely and I've seen the difference my Son four years back and my daughter four years back The affinity to have role models in sport and the way those role models are promoted was so much easier for my son and When I and the and it's not that role models don't exist. It's just they weren't promoted They weren't Actually presented to everyone or presented to girls the same way that male role models are presented to boys So women's sport is something that we took a very conscious effort in investing in last I mean last calendar year We did 500 live streamed events of live stream matches on women's sport Including domestic t20 leagues including netball including women's rugby This year we've already started with the under 19 Women's World Cup which has got tremendous traction across India And you know, if you've actually seen this that it makes such I mean everyone's spoken about this It's such an important giving exposure and investing in that exposure is so important My daughter Loves cricket or in loved cricket and she liked Rishabhan Virat Kohli The first time she ever wanted to pick up a cricket bat and learn to play Was when she saw jamaima rodricks play in the hundred That it's it's really important if you want to actually build women's sport about 20 years from now We have to be investing now. I mean the women's IPL great It'll add lots of value But the actual value of all women's sport growing We have to look at it in a 10-year 20-year planet can't be singular So that's what we're trying to help in our little way And you know, I I do believe that the amount of importance being given to it that the continuous investment When you said this red when you said about via com 18 paying whatever 700 cross 900 cross whatever it is The reality is when sony and dlf and all these sponsors put money on the IPL men's in 2008 it didn't exist No one imagined that would be so big but they put money up front and they said we are going to speak it to existence With the bcc and some bets work The champions league of cricket which people put money in failed But it needs that level of investment and we hope that all of us stakeholders including us will kind of help to that So you you're so this anyway takes me to your next question You're talking about importance of role model In importance of not just looking at a blip but looking at a long horizon. This is something even Gopich and sir spoke in the morning saying that, you know, you can't say I'll put money and you know show me results tomorrow So some of the things that I would like to ask you any if you can put shed some light on Successive sports did like you said long-term vision and structural changes infrastructure development What are some of the things that we need and need urgently in our country? So I think this concept of urgent credit has to be built now for 10 years from now So when you talk about infrastructure and structured has to be said that what are we doing? To actually build a sport 10 years from now and it's a cross sport. It's not I mean if you look at the west, it's similar uh collegiate, I mean, I think some veneed spoke about it collegiate Women's and girls basketball is so popular in in the u.s. And kind of grows to that So I think a lot of what we need to be thinking in context of what can you do to make that game of those? Those matches across whether it's netball basketball cricket football Federations right-solder sponsored to be looking at saying how do we make this the most compelling proposition to get more fans to the product? Whether it's creating superstars like shafali varma jamaima rodericks or whether it's creating Stories around those teams or whether it's all that stuff building that infrastructure and actually building that now for the next 10 years I think that's something that's really really important And you know even I mean one of the things that we keep talking about is It's extremely important that not just for young boys, but more maybe for more young girls that training facilities have got certain safety protocols washrooms, I mean someone was telling me the other day that in I think in a stadium in in deli the women's washroom was closed So they were boys and girls playing and they were taking turns using the boys washroom I mean just basic stuff like that. I think you can inculcate those habits. I think that'll One by one keep adding. It's not major. You don't have to like sunday overnight Invest like a thousand crows and change things these small things one after the other put together Is going to actually move women's sport to the level where you know all our kids. Hopefully our grandkids whatever will look at Sport the same way gender neutral saying that if I'm a boy or a girl I want to play this because I believe that you know, it's going to do so much for me I have a chance to present my country my state and make a living about it So Now my oh a common question that I want to pose to all of you If there's just one thing one wish is something that you Would like to do if we our topic is women's sports future of india's story One thing that we need to change or something that you want to See continue. What would it be? I will start with you yash and then do a round I'm not sure what would be that one thing because there are so many things that Need so many things that need to come. I'll just put it in one If I have to put it in one thing I'll just say that all the stakeholders that are there need to come together and Make sure that this grows. So just like yannick mentioned that 2008 it was dlf sony So many people came and that's why the IPL is what it is If yes, everyone can have a vision but all the stakeholders right from say agencies to sponsors to media to grassroot development to the players And to the executionary organization Everybody needs to come sit on it and make a 10 year 20 year plan and that's how it is going to grow Otherwise, yes, everyone doing it Without there is a connection between the two Then nothing can grow because everyone will have a different vision of it and It will just be like our five ringers which can Which can just run in parallel but can never meet So driving consensus with stakeholders. That's a very tall ask, but yeah, it's a wish list after all What about you vishal? So just to add on to what yash just said You know if I had to put out just one thing again We are discussing all the positive that has happened which is good, which is fair But again, there are several challenges still at the grassroot level because I work very closely in the grassroot So I understand that there are like layers of challenges and I can you know take another 10 15 minutes and describing that But I I can see that the time is up But quickly there are physical barriers. There are like cultural barriers There are financial barriers, which is like from the the moat of the entire Problem chain, but to answer your question if I had to pick just one thing You know, we all have heard this saying right If you educate a girl If you educate a boy, you are only educating a boy But if you educate a girl, you're actually educating a society Very similar to that if you invest in men's cricket You are only investing in men's cricket But if you are investing in women's cricket or women's cricketer You are actually investing in the entire ecosystem because that eventually flows down to the family that ensures that there is a livelihood That ensures that there is a financial stability and there are like ample of examples right from jemima rodricks to punam Raut who are now not just handling their own expenses, but also looking after their families So if I had to mention just one thing and to all the marketers to all the Sponsors to all the investors out there, please invest in women's cricket. That's the humble request So very quickly say what would be your one thing to change? Just start start watching women's sports guys. Okay. It's as simple as that. Just start watching it If you give us the eyeballs everyone will invest. It's as simple as that start watching it support it Go to the stadium also to kind of you know, watch it and cheer them and You know and arrest everything will fall in place Yannick Yeah, I think every single parent has to get their daughter playing sport every single parent Thank you. You do that, right? Then you've already I think made a big difference in Thank you. I know we have to kill a lot of time. But if there's any one question we could take from the audience I think we have our next panel waiting. So we'll have to limit the questions. I'm so sorry Do we have a question? Let's take one. So we have a question coming from the back We will just circulate the microphone to you and I'm sorry to be the devil's advocate, but I have to keep time. Sorry Please introduce yourself and ask your question Hello, okay. I'm Harish Vijayan from times group I just wanted to ask to panel just like how you said that it's just that if everybody starts watching Then we can actually promote the sport But if you see sports in general cricket basketball anything for that matter majority Men's cricket is followed by men So do you think that it's like if women started supporting women's sport then equally It can gather the audience that it should Which solves the 90 percent of problem, which is the economy. I think it's a wrong notion Men doesn't I think that I know a lot of women who like my my mother is the biggest supporter of Men's cricket she from Gundappa Vishnu days to even Virat Kohli now So he's been supporting men's sports and and I know a lot of men who like I have a whatsapp group where you know We follow The big bash women's big bash league. So it's not that I'm thinking. No, let's not say that men support men women support If everyone needs to kind of come together and look if you enjoy a sport you just Watch it like irrespective of I love cricket. I just watch Men's cricket or a women's cricket if I love hockey, I'll watch any of it long tennis There is no demarcation between Men's apart from the fact that you know, it's five sets and three sets. There is no other Demarcation, right? So, you know people they have fan following I'm just when I say what sports and you know what sports are level of you become fans No, you create fans out of it. Yeah, so that's how that's how the entire The sporting equestrian will grow And and the notion is very wrong. It's not like men only watch men's cricket or anything It's still 65 percent men watch men's cricket and 35 percent women who watch men's cricket. So I think so the same audience also needs to watch other sports And of course you need to also create a new audience to watch any sport. It's men women. It's cricket hockey basketball any sport for that matter Very well said. Thank you very much. Thank big. Thank you to everybody on the panel ladies and gentlemen A big round of applause Women's sports. What's the future? We had deep dived into this topic and had some great insights We would like to invite Hugh Gillam on stage to join us to give away a token of appreciation to all of our esteemed panelists and our session chair for this session Ladies and gentlemen, we talked about the scope and the future for women's sport in the country And in the last decade decade and a half things have changed women's sports Please Either left or right ladies and gentlemen a big round of applause Thank you for joining us and sharing your thoughts with us this evening