25-match tournament features the top eight teams in women’s cricket, with Australia the number-one seed, and defending champion. In eight previous World Cups, Australia has won on five occasions. England (twice) and New Zealand are the other nations to have won the ultimate prize in women’s cricket.
"With people watching the World Cup on TV or coming out to the games, the popularity of women’s cricket in Australia is going to increase and you’ll see a lot more girls playing the game," Australia captain Karen Rolton said.
"I’ll be telling the players to treat the World Cup like they would any other tournament. There will be a bit of additional pressure because we’re playing at home but hopefully we’ll have great support.
"It’s going to be important for the players to enjoy the experience and hopefully we’ll win enough matches to make it through to the final."
Cricket Australia Chairman Jack Clarke said that the ICC Women’s World Cup was an important opportunity to promote the women’s game in Australia. "Cricket Australia and Cricket New South Wales are committed to producing a world-class cricket event.
"The ICC Women’s World Cup is about more than just cricket however. It’s a chance to leave a legacy for young girls and boys around the world to one day aspire to become the champions of the future," Mr Clarke said.
"Cricket Australia has a formal Females in Cricket Strategy in place and to date we’ve had some outstanding successes. We hope that this event will further inspire a broader female involvement in our sport at all levels, including participants, spectators, umpires, coaches and administrators."
What’s more, fans in more than 100 countries can catch the action thanks to ESPN STAR Sports and its licensees, with ICC President David Morgan revealing it would be the most widely viewed women’s cricket event of all time.
"At least six of the matches will be shown to a television audience living more than 100 countries thanks to our Broadcast Partners ESPN STAR Sports and its licensees," he said, looking ahead to next March’s event that will feature the top eight sides in the world.
"It will be a wonderful opportunity to showcase the best of the best at the pinnacle of the sport and it is the latest stage of what we believe will be the continuing increase in the profile of women’s cricket in the months and years to come.
"There have been other world cups before this – eight in fact and, as the women’s event was first played in 1973, that means it pre-dates the first world cup for men by two years.
"But this event, to be played at six venues over 16 days, is the first to come under the ICC’s banner and it is another brick in the wall of women’s cricket, a wall that will grow taller and taller over time."
The tournament will feature hosts and holders Australia, as well as England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the West Indies. Mr Morgan said that in the three years since the ICC took control of the women’s game following its merger with the International Women’s Cricket Council in 2005, significant strides had already been made to take the game forward.
"The number of our Members with some form of organised girls or women’s activities has quadrupled in those three years," he said. "We have incorporated the women’s cricketer of the year award into the LG ICC Awards ceremony and two weeks ago in Mumbai we launched the Reliance Mobile ICC Women’s Player Rankings.
"And next June we have the ICC World Twenty20 tournament in England, with women’s and men’s events being staged in tandem for the first time, including both semi-finals and the final on the same days at the same venues.
"Having the Women’s World Cup take place in Australia is fitting given that the host is the defending champion and has won the title five times, more than any other side. The fact that it is under the ICC’s banner is not only a landmark for the sport, but is also entirely appropriate as 2009 is the ICC’s centenary," he added.
Mr Morgan thanked the ICC’s commercial partners for playing a major role in assisting the growth of women’s cricket. "I have already mentioned ESPN STAR Sports and how it and its licensees will spread the tournament throughout the world but there are also our Global Partners Reliance Communications Limited, PepsiCo and LG Electronics, our Official Partners Emirates Airlines, Reebok and Yahoo and our Local Partner for this event, Events New South Wales.
"These organisations are vital to ensuring the ICC is able to hold an event of this scale and we thank them for their contribution to the game. Women’s cricket and the ICC Women’s World Cup will play a major part in ensuring 2009 will be a great year for cricket and a year which will see our strong sport continue to grow stronger," added Mr Morgan.
More about the Women’s Cricket World Cup:
The Women’s World Cup has been running for longer than the men’s version and was first staged in England in 1973, when it was won by the hosts.
Since then there have been a further seven tournaments with Australia winning five of them (1978, 1982, 1988, 1997 & 2005), England winning once more (in 1993) and New Zealand triumphing in 2000.
The tournament has been staged twice each in England (1973 and 1993), India (1978 and 1997) and New Zealand (1982 and 2000), while this will be Australia’s second hosting following the 1988 event, while the most recent World Cup was held in South Africa in 2005.
The ICC Women’s World Cup to be staged in Australia in 2009 will be the first to be played under the auspices of the ICC since its merger with the International Women’s Cricket Council (IWCC) in 2005.
Australia will defend the title it won after defeating India in the final in South Africa in 2005. The other seven teams to take part in the tournament include India, New Zealand, England, Sri Lanka, West Indies, South Africa and Pakistan.
South Africa and Pakistan qualified for the World Cup after reaching the final of the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifiers staged in Stellenbosch, South Africa, in March, 2008.
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