English Cricket Board renames Man of the Match trophies Player of the Match in bid to become more gender-neutral
The Board have changed the name to make the trophies consistent for both the men and women's team.
CRICKET chiefs have been mocked for replacing Man of the Match awards with gender neutral Player of the Match trophies.
Fans went on the front foot after Virat Kohli, 29, won the most recent in India’s Third Test win over England at Trent Bridge yesterday.
England’s Chris Woakes, 29, and Sam Curran, 20, took the first two in this summer’s five match series.
Furious fan Jason Hardy tweeted: “Player of the Match?? It’s Man of the Match!! Always has been, always should be!!”
Gordon Links said commentators had used both terms after Woakes won.
He wrote: “Was hoping we weren’t being forced to go down this ‘gender neutral’ or politically correct road by the powers that be.”
The English Cricket Board changed the name to make trophies for men and women consistent.
The England women’s team are ranked second in the world.
The policy will continue into next summer’s men’s Test series against Australia in England.
It follows a move last year by the MCC — guardian of the laws of cricket — not to term players he and she.
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It stopped short of banning phrases incorporating the word man, such as “batsman” and “third man”.
Christina Matthews, head of the Western Australia Cricket Association, said gender terms should be removed as they “disrespect half the population”.
She said there was “no common-sense reason” to keep them.
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