Record number of spectators flock to watch Pakistan vs England Women's T20Is
Pakistan women's team captain Nida Dar is overwhelmed by the crowd support during the ongoing tour of England as a record number of spectators flock to watch Pakistan vs England women’s T20Is.
In the first leg of the tour, where the Green Shirts took over the home team in a three match T20I series, more than 27,000 spectators including thousands of Pakistanis and British-Pakistanis attended the games to watch the female cricketers in action in Birmingham, Northampton and Leeds.
Stadium attendance records at Edgbaston and Headingley were also broken during the T20I games between Pakistan and England women teams.
Although the Pakistan team didn’t do well and lost the series 3-0, the Pakistani skipper Dar was taken by surprise to see the support for her girls at all three venues.
“The support we got from the crowd so far in this tour has been amazing, grounds have been quite full which is not seen very often other than the global tournaments. So far, we have enjoyed the fans' support and appreciation. Overall, the focus on women cricket around the world has been strong and female cricketers definitely needed that to get more exposure,” she said.
Pakistan men’s cricket team has always enjoyed a huge fan base in Birmingham and Leeds, whose neighbouring town is Bradford, and both Brimingham and Bradford are known as mini Pakistans due to the high percentage of community originating from Pakistan and Kashmir.
But this time, even the Pakistan women’s team had the strong backing from the diaspora community which was a real booster for Dar and her team as they are looking to improve their performance specially in the batting department during the ODI series.