Women’s World Cup Cricket is the oldest championship. The World Cup is played in the ODI format, meaning each team bats for 50 overs. To qualify for the World Cup, Women’s teams have two choices. The first is to play in the ICC Women’s Championship and the second one is by qualifying through the World Cup qualifiers.
The first Women’s World Cup was held in 1973, two years before the Men’s World Cup. At the beginning of the Women’s World Cup cricket, ICC (International Cricket Conference) didn’t have enough money for the smooth functioning of the World Cup, due to this many teams didn’t even come to play. The 2nd Women’s World Cup was held after a gap of 6 years. But since 2005, ICC assured that the Women’s World Cup cricket will be held every four years.
The first-ever women’s cricket match was held in 1934 when an English team toured Australia and New Zealand. England Won the first-ever women’s cricket test match. Until 1960, every women’s cricket test match played was won by Australia, England and New Zealand. But that changed when South Africa played a number of matches with the English team and won a few.
The first-ever ODI match was played between England and Australia at Melbourne Cricket Ground which is one of the most famous cricket grounds in the world. Then in 1971, talks began about holding the first-ever ODI Women’s World Cup cricket. Then the talk became reality and the first ever Women’s World Cup Cricket was held in 1973. A number of matches were played across different grounds throughout England in the months of June and July. England Women’s Cricket team won the inaugural Cricket World Championship.
Timeline Of World Cup Winners
There haven’t been many World Cup-winning teams, to be honest. Since its inception in 1973, only 3 teams have ever won the tournament. Those 3 teams are Australia, England and New Zealand. Out of 12 times, Australia’s women’s team has won the Women’s World Cup cricket a whopping 7 times. England has won 4 times while New Zealand won in 2000. Unfortunately, India has never won a Women’s World Cup cricket although it has been a runner-up 2 times, once in 2005 and the other time in 2017.
The latest Women’s World Cup cricket was held in 2022 which Australia won by defeating England in the finals.
Awards presented
The sport of Women’s cricket is dominated by 3 teams; Australia, England and New Zealand. All the ‘player of the tournament’ and ‘player of finals’ awards ever presented have been awarded to players from these 3 teams only.
Player Of The Tournament- Since the Women’s World Cup Cricket inception in 1973, only 7 ‘Player of the Tournament’ awards have been awarded out of which 3 were awarded to England, 3 were awarded to Australia and only one was awarded to New Zealand.
Player Of Finals- When it comes to ‘Players of Finals’, it was awarded on 8 occasions out of which, 4 were awarded to Australia while England and New Zealand were awarded 3 and 1 awards respectively.
Records And Achievements
The dominance of the top 3 teams continues even in terms of records, as most of the records are in the name of players from Australia, New Zealand and England. Here are some of the records and their holder’s names:
- Most Runs- The record for the most runs is held by a WhiteFerns, Debbie Hockley. She has scored 1,501 runs in the tournament.
- Most Wickets- This record is held by an Indian cricketer by the name of Jhulan Goswami. She has taken 43 wickets which is the most wickets taken by any athlete in the tournament.
- Highest Partnership– The record for highest partnership is held by English cricketers, Tammy Beaumont and Sarah Taylor. In the 2017 World Cup, they had a partnership of 275 runs.
- Highest runs in an innings– Australian cricketer Belinda Clark holds the record for the highest runs in an innings. In the 1997 World Cup, she made 229 runs not out.
- Most Wickets in a Single Match– The record for the most wickets taken in a single match is of New Zealand cricketer Jacki Lords. When playing against India in 1982, Jackie took 6 out of 10 wickets.
Final Thoughts
Women’s World Cup Cricket is the oldest world championship in the sport of Cricket. Even before men, women from several countries were going to different places to represent their country on the highest stage in the world. Many of the ladies mentioned above are a legend of the sport now. So this was a brief history of Women’s World Cup cricket. Although it has a long history, still Women’s cricket doesn’t get the same attention as men’s World Cup. This too is changing though and the biggest step towards that change has been taken by the BCCI (Board Of Control For Cricket In India). They have decided to pay the same salaries to their female cricketers as their male counterparts.
