Editors Blog

Pat Cash, who once described women's tennis as "two sets of rubbish that lasts only half an hour", is now firmly behind the fairer sex, and has applauded the decision to award equal prize money to men and women.  He dismissed arguments that women don't play for as long (in terms of minutes or sets) back in 2006, saying that just because Andrew Jackson's film, 'King Kong', was long didn't mean it was necessarily better or more enjoyable.

It's a well-known fact that men are, on average, physically superior to women, at least in terms of measurements.  Most Olympics records are owned by men, as are those of the  Guinness World variety. More importantly, studies of IQ tests also lean in men's favour (although it could be argued that men are just better at IQ tests).

That said, in the average workplace, success often doesn't come down to general knowledge, or the ability to run fast or lift heavy objects.  Traits for getting ahead, recommended by popular TV show 'the Apprentice', include 'passion, tenacity, competitiveness, and negotiation skills', but there is no clear consensus on which gender has more of a claim to those traits than the other.  And Venus Williams serving at 127mph just last month, five miles slower than Marat Safin, is step in the right direction. 

With the Equality Bill set to approve positive action, where employers can legally hire a female applicant over an equally-qualified male applicants purely to improve diversity, one has to wonder if this will ever impact on sport.  It's well trumpeted that diversity helps in the workplace, but it's arguable whether this would apply to sport - mixed doubles, for example, is the least popular of the three modes of tennis, and arguably the least competitive.

But if moves in the workplace are being echoed on the (tennis) courts, how long until we see more co-ed professional sport?

Would a championship-winning English football team consisting of members of both its men's and women's national squads be as worthy as the all-male team?  Could a coed-Ashes victory taste as sweet for the Barmy Army as it did in 2005-06?