History of Women Cricket

 Women’s Cricket 

Women cricket is the type of cricket that is played by women. The first match of women cricket was played on 26 July 1745. According to The Reading Mercury on July 26, 1745, the first known match of Women cricket was played "between eleven maids of Bramley and eleven maids of Hambledon, all clothed in white." The White Heather Club in Yorkshire, founded in 1887, was the first documented women's cricket club. Three years later, the Original English Lady Cricketers returned to England, reputedly profiting well before their manager vanished with the money. The Pioneers Cricket Club in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, established a women's cricket side in 1894, and Australia formed a women's cricket league in 1895. Victoria also fielded a women's cricket team at Beacon Hill Park in Canada.

The International Women's Cricket Council (IWCC) was founded in 1958 to coordinate women's cricket around the world, taking over from the English Women's Cricket Association, which had been doing so de facto for 32 years. In 2005, the International Women's Cricket Council (IWCC) and the International Cricket Council (ICC) merged to establish the International Cricket Council (ICC).

International Cricket of Women: 

Since the first women's Test match between England and Australia in December 1934, women's cricket has been played all over the world. The next year, the women of New Zealand joined them, and when the Netherlands women played the women of South Africa in 2007, they became the tenth women's Test nation. Women's One-Day Internationals (ODIs) have been the focus of women's international cricket since 1973. Women's ODIs have been played more than eight times as much as women's Test cricket in the years since its start.

The Women's Cricket World Cup has been won nine times by Australia, England, and New Zealand. In 2004, the women's Twenty20 International format was established, as was a shorter format. With only four matches played before the end of 2006, women's Twenty20 cricket was initially underrepresented on the international stage. The next three years saw rapid growth, with six matches played in 2007, ten in 2008, and thirty in 2009, which also saw the first ICC Women's World Twenty20 event.

Franchise of Women cricket: 

Women have been playing franchise cricket in Australia's Women's Big Bash League since 2015. In England and Wales, the semi-professional Women's Cricket Super League was founded in 2016.

In India, women's franchise cricket made its debut in 2018. In 2018, the Women's T20 Challenge was a two-team Twenty20 cricket tournament held in the United Kingdom. The competition was enlarged to a three-team event a year later, in 2019. The England and Wales Cricket Board announced plans for the Hundred event in 2018, which will begin in July 2021. The men's and women's teams were matched at this time, with the women's match set to start on January 23, 2021.

Women’s T20 World Cup: 

The ICC Women's T20 World Cup (formerly known as the ICC Women's World Twenty20 until 2019) is a biannual international women's Twenty20 cricket tournament. The International Cricket Council (ICC), the sport's governing body, hosts the tournament, which first took place in England in 2009. The number of participants was limited to eight for the first three tournaments, but from the 2014 event onwards, it was increased to ten. After a certain number of teams automatically qualify for each event, the other teams are chosen through the World Twenty20 Qualifier. Australia is the most successful team in the tournament, having won it five times.

Women’s Cricket World Cup: 

In 1973, England hosted the first ICC Women's Cricket World Cup, making it the sport's oldest world tournament. The ICC Women's T20 World Cup is a distinct event for Twenty20 international cricket. One Day Internationals (ODIs) are played over 50 overs.

The World Cup is now managed by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was governed by a separate organization, the International Women's Cricket Council, until 2005, when the two merged (IWCC). Two years before the men's competition, England hosted the inaugural World Cup in 1973. Financial difficulties hampered the event's early years, forcing many teams to decline invitations to compete, resulting in tournament gaps of up to six years. Since 2005, however, World Cups have been staged every four years.

The ICC Women's Championship and the World Cup Qualifier are both World Cup qualifying events. Since 1997, no new teams have entered the competition, and since 2000, the maximum number of teams has been set at eight. However, the ICC confirmed in March 2021 that the competition will be expanded to ten teams beginning in 2029. In the 1997 edition, a record eleven teams competed, the most ever in a single event.

Five different countries have hosted the eleven World Cups that have been held so far, with India and England hosting the event three times apiece. Australia is the most successful team in the world, with six titles and only three appearances in the final. England (four wins) and New Zealand (one title) are the only other teams to win the competition, with India (twice) and the West Indies (one) each reaching the final but failing to win. 

ICC Women’s Championship:

The International Cricket Council's Women's Championship (ICC Women's Championship) is an international cricket tournament that selects who qualifies for the Women's Cricket World Cup. From April 2014 to November 2016, the ICC Women's Championship was held for the first time. In the inaugural edition, Australia came out on top. The event's second edition began in October 2017, with the top four teams earning automatic qualification for the Women's Cricket World Cup in 2021.

The top eight teams in the ICC Women's Rankings competed in the first two events. The International Cricket Council (ICC) said in September 2018 that it is exploring expanding the league to include all ten teams in future seasons, adding Bangladesh and Ireland. The ICC confirmed in August 2021 that the top three teams from the 2021 Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier competition, as well as the next two best teams, will qualify for the following IWC cycles.