ICC Announces Expansion Of Women's Game; Set To Allow More Teams To Compete In The Global Events

A year after a ground-breaking success of the 2020 T20 Women’s World Cup and on International Women’s day, the ICC has announced the expansion of women’s cricket after the 2023 cycle. The resoundingly positive response earned for the T20 World Cup hosted by Australia last year gave a massive push to women’s cricket. As a result, ICC has stepped up and planned the enlargement.

The coming years will witness more teams participating in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup from 2026 onwards and the 50-over edition as part of the apex body’s long-term commitment to the sport’s penetration in a sustainable fashion. The revised rules will give more teams a chance to prove their mettle on the global stage and grow domestically and challenge international sides gradually.

Manu Sawhney, ICC’s Chief Executive, underlined that they are firm on an ambitious long-term growth plan for women’s cricket. For the last four years, they have continued to build momentum by investing in global broadcast coverage and attracting fans. Sawhney reminded that the T20 World Cup earning a record 1.1 billion video views and having 86,174 fans present at the MCG are all testaments to the same.

“We have a clear focus and commitment to an ambitious long-term growth plan for the women’s game. We have been building momentum around the women’s game for the last four years investing in global broadcast coverage and marketing to drive fan engagement. The results speak for themselves with the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 attracting record numbers, 1.1 billion video views, making it the most watched women’s cricket event of all time and having 86,174 fans attending the final at the MCG, a record attendance for a women’s cricket event,” Sawhney said as quoted by the ICC’s official website.

The decision gives more member countries greater opportunities to compete on a global stage: ICC Chief Executive

ICC’s Chief Executive further stated that their decision allows further members to compete on a global level and chances to partake in the qualification pathways in the upcoming ICC events. Manu feels that such initiatives will go a long way in helping them achieve their goals of building depth and strength in the women’s game.

“This decision to expand our women’s events builds on these foundations and allows us to give more member countries greater opportunities to compete on a global stage. This means that more teams will also get the opportunity to compete in the qualification pathways for the respective ICC events over the coming years. I am sure these initiatives will go a long way in helping us achieve our strategic goal of continuing to build strength and depth in the women’s game,” he added.

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