Former Australia captain Steve Waugh has advocated the presence of least one female player in each team in the men-only Big Bash Twenty20 (T20) League. Waugh, though, said the idea might seem to some as "out there". "I think it's about time where we could have one woman player per Big Bash side. Going forward, I can't see why the girls can't have representation in the Big Bash," Waugh said. He suggested allowing the likes of Alex Blackwell, who was on Thursday presented with the Belinda Clark Medal as New South Wales' best female cricketer, fast bowler Ellyse Perry and wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy, the opportunity to match it with the men in the modified version of the game. "It's a bit out there, that thought, but I think it might be time," Waugh told 'The Sydney Morning Herald'. A similar suggestion was made in 1994 when Zoe Gross played for Western Australia in a charity match at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The male players involved in the game were Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson, Sunil Gavaskar, David Hookes, David Gower, Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Barry Richards, Brian Lara and Graeme Pollock. Zoe ended up scoring 29 and dismissed West Indies batting great Brian Lara, forcing the organisers to consider including one female in each state team. Before the Bradman XI-World XI game, Lara had slammed then world record Test and first-class highest scores of 375 against England and 501 for Warwickshire in English county. The plan, however, did not materialise as it was seen as a huge risk. Meanwhile, Waugh advised the national selectors to "pick and stick" with their players despite the 0-4 Test series whitewash against India recently. "I think we're just going to have patience with the current team. It reminds me a lot of 1985-86 when I first came into the Australian side. "It took us a couple of years to know how to win...13 Test matches before I played in a winning Test side; 26 Tests before I scored a century," he said. Source: The Indian Express, Image: flickr.com
