The recent Australian Open was all a broo-ha-ha questioning why the women should get equal prize money as the men players provided more entertainment and played longer. Professor Henry Higgins in “My Fair Lady”...
The recent Australian Open was all a broo-ha-ha questioning why the women should get equal prize money as the men players provided more entertainment and played longer. Professor Henry Higgins in “My Fair Lady” asked: “Why can’t a woman be more like a man?” and Mel Gibson made a point of knowing “What Women Want”.
For so long woman in sport, business and society have been pressing for an equal deal, more often than not they have been thwarted from breaking through the glass ceiling but sometimes they have been successful. At the same time men have been jumping through hoops in an effort to understand what woman are all about. Now that is an absolutely impossible task. That is definitely meant for the too hard basket or maybe just filed in the darkest corner of a cabinet under “Mission Impossible”.
But with the aspect of women wanting equality it got me to thinking about an area of tennis where a woman has never been - that I can recall anyway. A woman has never put her hand up to be considered captain of a Davis Cup side. Why is that?
Women want to be considered as good as any man, so why not be a Davis Cup captaincy and prove something?
Women have been, and continue to be Fed Cup captains (Mary Joe Fernandez, Judy Murray) and men have been and continue to be Fed Cup captains (Shamil Tarpischev, David Taylor), but there has been nothing as far as the biggest annual team sporting event in the world. So why not a woman as Davis Cup captain?
Don’t you think it’s time that changed? I think it would be a fascinating experiment and appointment.
If you had the choice which woman would you nominate as a Davis Cup captain? And don’t suggest someone like Hillary Clinton, which might be an interesting thought, but you probably wouldn’t get far, for a start the guys would be too scared of her (she’d be definitely be wearing the pants), and she’d probably be the wrong political party for someone like Andy Roddick.
In my mind there is just one and France should be the guinea pig nation to give it a try. I think Amelie Mauresmo should be Davis Cup captain. My colleague Eli Weinstein who does the French blog here on We Are Tennis, I think, agrees with me. You might have another thought.
The French federation is pretty liberal. Remember all that stuff about fraternity, liberty, etc? Talk about something like that being a revolution.
Amelie has worked a bit with French Davis Cup player Michael Llodra . She has a great tennis mind. She has been a wonderful athlete. She is well liked by the media and the other players from her nation. There is respect for her having been a great player – Grand Slam champion, Olympian, world No.1. I’m sure she would be available. There is no rule in the book to prevent it. What a boost that would be for gender equality.
Don’t worry with the point of not being able to go into the locker rooms, male Fed Cup captains don’t and are still successful. This would be brilliant and tennis would be even more of a talking point.
I think we should start something here. What do you guys think? Who would you nominate? Give us your feedback on the idea and why or why not it’s a good idea to have a woman lead a Davis Cup side.
