Women's cricket

In 1926, the creation of the Women's Cricket Association (WCA) in England began the process of formalising the game and organising international matches.

Three years later, a team known as the Original English Lady Cricketers toured England, reportedly making substantial profits before the manager absconded with the money.

[14] Much of the language of cricket is heavily gendered; terms such as maiden over, nightwatchman, and third man are not officially sanctioned but remain in colloquial use.

[16] There was some derision in parts of the cricketing and wider press but others responded that the term "batter" had been in widespread use through much of the 18th and 19th centuries.

According to The Laws of Cricket: Clause 4.6.1 Women’s cricketWeight: from 4.94 ounces/140 g to 5.31 ounces/151 gCircumference: from 8.25 in/21.0 cm to 8.88 in/22.5 cm.For comparison, the ball in the men's game should weigh between 5.5 and 5.75 oz (156 and 163 g), and be between 8.81 and 9 in (224 and 229 mm) in circumference.

With changes in womenswear in the late Victorian period, clothes for middle-and-upper-class women to undertake physical activity became more available.

The move to trousers eliminated this danger for women players, and the tan lines between the bottom of the skirts and the socks.

[72] The only gender-specific clothing rule allows cricketers to wear hijab in ICC events provided it does not obscure any logos and names on the playing uniform.

[74] England wicket keeper Betty Snowball avoided this problem by having her gloves and pads custom made.

[78] Present and former cricketers, such as Lydia Greenway,[76] Ellyse Perry[79] and Heather Knight,[80] have been involved with leading changes in the design of equipment for women.

The brands Kookaburra, SM Cricket, Viking, Gray-Nicolls and JPGavan all now produce equipment intended for women.

[76][79] The brands NEXX and Lacuna Sports have been launched in the UK to provide clothing and equipment to women who play cricket.

[citation needed] In 2004, a shorter-still format, the Twenty20 International (T20I) was introduced; matches are restricted to twenty overs per side.

[citation needed] In November 2021, the ICC retrospectively applied first-class and List A status to women's cricket, aligning it with the men's game.

[83][84] In July 2023, the ICC announced equal prize money will be available for ICC global events, meaning future Women's Cricket World Cup and Women's T20 World Cup competitions will have the same prizes for winners and runners up as male competitions.

The ICC also maintains individual player rankings in ODI and T20I based on batting, bowling and all-round performance.

In 1998, the Women's Cricket Association (WCA) created a set of Ashes to be contested by Australia and England.

[90] The Rose Bowl is an ODI series played between Australia and New Zealand, and has been contested since the 1984–85 season, the most-recent being in 2020.

[92] The Asia Cup began in 2004 as an ODI competition between members of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC).

[97] Subsequent tournaments were hampered by lack of funds for women's teams, meaning their scheduling was inconsistent for many years.

[100][101] African nations including Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda, and the hosts Rwanda compete in the tournament.

[102][103] The word 'Kwibuka' means "to remember" in Kinyarwanda, the Rwandan national language, and is the title of annual commemorations of the genocide.

[121] The ultimate decision was made in October 2023 at a meeting of the International Olympic Committee Executive board by the nod of inclusion of cricket in 2028.

[126] Women's cricket made its debut at the 2019 South Asian Games in Pokhara, Nepal, in the T20 format.

[131] The majority of high-level women's domestic cricket in ICC Full Member countries consists of 50-over and Twenty20 competitions.

It has a more-relaxed playing style than hardball cricket; for example underarm bowling is allowed and more-complicated rules such as leg before wicket are not included.

It will be composed of six teams that will have increased funding to professionally contract more players and hire full-time coaching staff.

[175] The 2023 IBSA World Games in Birmingham, England, included cricket for the first time and India was the first country to announce it would be sending a team.

[180] India beat Australia in the final and were publicly praised by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

[182] For example, Belinda Clark made the first double century in ODI cricket in the 1997 World Cup, 23 years earlier than Sachin Tendulkar's 200* in 2010.

Cricket pictogram
Cricket pictogram
Watercolor painting of a ladies cricket match
Watercolor painting from 1779 of a ladies cricket match played by Elizabeth Smith-Stanley, Countess of Derby and other women
A diagram showing the difference in sizes in a men's and women's cricket field
The pitch and close infield is the same size in both the men's and women's games. The infield is smaller but, because the outfield is a range, there's an overlap between the largest women's field and the smallest men's field.
A satirical image of a woman cricketer and a woman hunter from 1778. They're both wearing late-Georgian fashion with satirically shortened hemlines and one treads on a piece of paper titled "effeminacy".
Photo from 1934–35 England tour of Australia and New Zealand . The England team (L) wear divided skirts and white stockings . [ 66 ] The "Woollengong" (sic) women's cricket team wear trousers, something that was described at the time as disgraceful. [ 67 ]
A member of the India team at the 2009 Women's Cricket World Cup . She wears the same trousers, long sleeve shirt and cap as the men's uniform.
Advert for the first Women's One Day International game to be played at Lord's .
Hong Kong playing South Korea at the Yeonhui Cricket Ground in Incheon, South Korea during the 2014 Asian Games .
Betty Wilson , the woman with the highest bowling average in Test cricket, photographed in 1951. She was also the first cricketer of either sex to score a ten-wicket haul and a century in a single Test. [ 182 ]