The final Women's World Cup organised by the defunct International Women's Cricket Council was an eight team tournament following a six team qualifier. Twenty years after the ICC took over the running of women's cricket in 2005, the Women's World Cup is an eight team tournament that follows a six team qualifier.
On the face of it this would suggest that there has been no growth in women's cricket in those twenty years, but in fact nothing could be further from the truth. Women's cricket has been growing at rapid pace in recent years, with more countries than ever fielding women's teams on a regular basis.
Continental Europe beyond the Netherlands, the Americas, Asia and in particular Africa have seen a surge in women's cricket in the last decade. Yet despite that growth, the ICC will not expand the Women's World Cup until 2029 when it will be a ten team event, still short of the 11 team peak that the tournament had in the IWCC days.
Scotland's team for the recent Women's World Cup Qualifier (Cricket Scotland)
Even the pathway has shrunk. Twenty teams were in the pathway for the first ICC run tournament including the automatic qualifiers. Regional qualifiers for all five ICC regions led into a global qualifier. There was no regional pathway this time, and there was barely a pathway at all.
Whilst ten full members played in the ICC Women's Championship, which produced six qualifiers for the main event, the other six nations were left to organise their own fixtures and qualify for the World Cup Qualifier through the rankings.
This isn't an issue of competitveness. West Indies, who were runners-up in the main event as recently as 2013, were unable to qualify this time, and lost to Scotland during the tournament. The World Cup can contain more than ten teams and still be a competitive event. That the ICC are not looking to accelerate the expansion of the tournament so that it is at least on a par with the men's event given the vast growth in women's cricket is nothing short of scandalous.
The lack of organised fixtures for the associates with ODI status will be compounded for the next cycle by Zimbabwe jumping ahead of Thailand and Scotland - as well as the Netherlands who remain ahead of them in the rankings - into the Women's Championship. This flies in the face of the ICC's claimed goals of having meritocratic pathways. It's debatable whether Zimbabwe are even the best team in Africa outside of South Africa.
The ICC must look to expand the women's World Cup to be on a par with the men's tournament at the earliest possible opportunity, they must organise a proper pathway along similar lines to the men's pathway and they must give more teams an opportunity to take part in this pathway. To do otherwise is a betrayal of the ICC's stated goals of advancing gender equality.
Last year, the ICC and UNICEF announced an extension to a partnership that they said hoped to "empower girls and women". The ICC was described as "a powerful ally in UNICEF’s efforts to advance gender equality". It's time for the ICC to do more than just talk a good game on gender equality and implement it in their tournaments.
