Women's Cricket World Cup

Matches are played as One Day Internationals (ODIs) over 50 overs per team (though the first five championships, from 1973 to 1993, were played at 60 overs per team). There is also another championship for Twenty20 International cricket, the ICC Women's T20 World Cup.

ICC Women's Cricket World Cup

Administrator	International Cricket Council
Format	WODI
First edition	1973  England
Latest edition	2022  New Zealand
Next edition	2025  India
Number of teams	8 (10 from 2029)
Current champion	Australia (7th title)
Most successful	Australia (7 titles)
Most runs	Debbie Hockley (1,501)
Most wickets	Jhulan Goswami (43)

The World Cup is currently organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). Until 2005, when the two organisations merged, it was administered by a separate body, the International Women's Cricket Council (IWCC). The first World Cup was held in England in 1973, two years before the inaugural men's tournament. The event's early years were marked by funding difficulties, which meant several teams had to decline invitations to compete and caused gaps of up to six years between tournaments. However, since 2005 World Cups have been hosted at regular four-year intervals.

Qualification for the World Cup is through the ICC Women's Championship and the World Cup Qualifier. The composition of the tournament is extremely conservative – no new teams have debuted in the tournament since 1997, and since 2000 the number of teams in the World Cup has been fixed at eight. However, in March 2021, the ICC revealed that the tournament would expand to 10 teams from the 2029 edition. The 1997 edition was contested by a record eleven teams, the most in a single tournament to date.

The twelve World Cups played to date have been held in five countries, with India and England having hosted the event three times. Australia is the most successful team, having won seven titles and failed to make the final on only three occasions. England (four titles) and New Zealand (one title) are the only other teams to have won the event, while India (twice) and the West Indies (once) have each reached the final without going on to win.

First World Cup

Women's international cricket was first played in 1934, when a party from England toured Australia and New Zealand. The first Test match was played on 28–31 December 1934, and was won by England. The first Test against New Zealand followed early the following year. These three nations remained the only Test playing teams in women's cricket until 1960, when South Africa played a number of matches against England. Limited overs cricket was first played by first-class teams in England in 1962. Nine years later, the first international one day match was played in men's cricket, when England took on Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Talks began in 1971 about holding a World Cup for women's cricket, led by Jack Hayward. South Africa, under pressure from the world for their apartheid laws, were not invited to take part in the competition. Both of the other two Test playing nations, Australia and New Zealand were invited. Hayward had previously organised tours of the West Indies by England women, and it was from this region that the other two competing nations were drawn; Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago. To make up the numbers, England also fielded a "Young England" team, and an "International XI" was also included. Five South Africans were invited to play for the International XI as a means of compensation for the team not being invited, but these invitations were later withdrawn.

The inaugural tournament was held at a variety of venues across England in June and July 1973, two years before the first men's Cricket World Cup was played. The competition was played as a round-robin tournament, and the last scheduled match was England against Australia. Australia went into the game leading the table by a solitary point: they had won four matches and had one abandoned. England had also won four matches, but they had lost to New Zealand. As a result, the match also served as a de facto final for the competition. England won the match, held at Edgbaston, Birmingham by 92 runs to win the tournament.

Fifteen teams have qualified for the Women's Cricket World Cup at least once (excluding qualification tournaments). Three teams have competed at every tournament, the same three sides who have won a title: England, Australia and New Zealand.

Teams' performances

Legend

• 1st – Champions
• 2nd – Runners-up
• 3rd – Third place
• SF – Losing semi-finalist (no third-place playoff)
• QF – Losing quarter-finalist (no further playoffs)
•     — Hosts

Team	1973 (7)	1978 (4)	1982 (5)	1988 (5)	1993 (8)	1997 (11)	2000 (8)	2005 (8)	2009 (8)	2013 (8)	2017 (8)	2022 (8)	2025 (8)	Total
Australia	2nd	1st	1st	1st	3rd	1st	2nd	1st	4th	1st	SF	1st		12
Bangladesh												7th		1
Denmark					7th	9th								2
England	1st	2nd	2nd	2nd	1st	SF	5th	SF	1st	3rd	1st	2nd		12
India		4th	4th		4th	SF	SF	2nd	3rd	7th	2nd	5th	Q	10
Ireland				4th	5th	QF	7th	8th						5
Netherlands				5th	8th	QF	8th							4
New Zealand	3rd	3rd	3rd	3rd	2nd	2nd	1st	SF	2nd	4th	5th	6th		12
Pakistan						11th			5th	8th	8th	8th		5
South Africa						QF	SF	7th	7th	6th	SF	SF		7
Sri Lanka						QF	6th	6th	8th	5th	7th			6
West Indies					6th	10th		5th	6th	2nd	6th	SF		7
Defunct teams
International XI	4th		5th											2
Jamaica	6th													1
Trinidad and Tobago	5th													1
Young England	7th													1

Debutant teams

Year	Teams
1973	Australia,   England,   New Zealand, International XI‡,   Jamaica†,   Trinidad and Tobago†,   Young England‡
1978	India
1982	none
1988	Ireland,   Netherlands
1993	Denmark,   West Indies
1997	Pakistan,   South Africa,   Sri Lanka
2000	none
2005	none
2009	none
2013	none
2017	none
2022	Bangladesh
2025	TBD

†No longer have ODI status. ‡No longer exists.

Overview

The table below provides an overview of the performances of teams over past World Cups, as of the end of the 2022 tournament. Teams are sorted by best performance, then by appearances, total number of wins, total number of games, and alphabetical order respectively.

	Appearances				Statistics
Team	Total	First	Latest	Best performance	Mat.	Won	Lost	Tie	NR	Win%*
Australia	11	1973	2022	Champions (1978, 1982, 1988, 1997, 2005, 2013, 2022)	84	70	11	1	2	85.47
England	11	1973	2022	Champions (1973, 1993, 2009, 2017)	83	57	23	2	1	75.04
New Zealand	11	1973	2022	Champions (2000)	80	51	26	2	1	65.82
India	9	1978	2022	Runners-up (2005, 2017)	63	34	27	1	1	55.64
West Indies	6	1993	2022	Runners-up (2013)	38	13	24	0	1	35.13
South Africa	6	1997	2022	Semi-finals (2000, 2017, 2022)	38	15	22	0	3	40.54
Pakistan	4	1997	2022	Super 6s (2009)	23	3	21	0	0	14.28
Sri Lanka	6	1997	2017	Quarter-finals (1997)	35	8	26	0	1	23.52
Ireland	5	1988	2005	Quarter-finals (1997)	34	7	26	0	1	21.21
Netherlands	4	1988	2000	Quarter-finals (1997)	26	2	24	0	0	07.69
International XI‡	2	1973	1982	First Round (1973, 1982)	18	3	14	0	1	16.66
Denmark	2	1993	1997	First Round (1993, 1997)	13	2	11	0	0	15.38
Trinidad and Tobago†	1	1973	1973	First Round (1973)	6	2	4	0	0	33.33
Bangladesh	1	2022	2022	First Round (2022)	7	1	6	0	0	14.28
Young England‡	1	1973	1973	First Round (1973)	6	1	5	0	0	16.66
Jamaica†	1	1973	1973	First Round (1973)	5	1	4	0	0	20.00

†No longer have ODI status. ‡No longer exists.

• The Win percentage excludes no results and counts ties as half a win.
• Teams are sorted by their best performance, then winning percentage, then (if equal) by alphabetical order.

• ICC Women's Championship
• ICC Women's T20 World Cup
• ICC Women's T20 Champions Trophy
• Cricket World Cup