ICC Women's World Cup 2009: About the Event; RESULTS and STANDINGS

ICC Women's World Cup 2009 - About the Event

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. For more details on the Qualifier click here.

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 and 2005), and England (in 1993) and New Zealand (2000) both triumphing once.

The tournament has been staged twice each in England (1973 and 1993), India (1978 and 1997) and New Zealand (1982 and 2000) as well as Australia (1988) and South Africa (2005).

RESULTS

Mar 12, 2009

Scorecard

NZL

vs

RSA

NZL beat RSA by 199 runs

Mar 12, 2009

Scorecard

IND

vs

SRI

IND beat SRI by 35 runs

Mar 12, 2009

Scorecard

ENG

vs

PAK

ENG beat PAK by 8 wickets

Mar 12, 2009

Scorecard

AUS

vs

WIN

AUS beat WIN by 47 runs

STANDINGS
Teams MP - W -NR -L -NRR -PTS
GROUP A
New Zealand 2 -2 -0 -0 -(+0.8313)- 4
Australia-2-1-0-1-(+0.5783)-2
West Indies-2-1-0-1- (-0.5159)-2
South Africa-2-0-0-2-(-0.6705)-0

GROUP B
England-2-2-0-0-(+1.6134)-4
India -2-1-0-1-(+1.1958)-2
Pakistan -2-1-0-1-(-0.5200)-2
Sri Lanka 2-0-0-2-(-1.5700)-0

ICC Women's World Cup 2009 Teams: West Indies

ICC Women's World Cup 2009 - Teams

West Indies - Team Profile

It is hard to know how the West Indies will perform in this event as up until its matches against Ireland in June 2008 and England in July 2008, it had barely played an international game since the Women's World Cup 2005.

The side, which is captained by Merissa Aguilllera, also lost to Sri Lanka in late 2008, but showed enough form to provide hope to the young side.

Coach Sherwin Campbell, who played 52 Tests and 90 ODIs for the West Indies, will bring plenty of experience to the side although the main challenge many players will face is one of a lack of match practice.

The opening match against South Africa will be a crucial game to win if it is to progress to the Super Six stage.

SELECT PLAYERS

Merissa Aguilleira (Captain) Kirbyina Alexander (Vice Captain) Shanel Daley Deandra Dottin Afy Fletcher Geneille Greaves Cordel Jack Stacy-Ann King Pamela Lavine Debbie-Ann Lewis Anisa Mohammed Shakera Selman Danielle Small Charlene Taitt Stafanie Taylor

ICC Women's World Cup 2009 Teams: Sri Lanka

ICC Women's World Cup 2009 - Teams

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka reached the final of the Asia Cup in May 2008 but was heavily defeated by India, which illustrates the task it faces if it is to challenge the top four sides.

Skipper Shashikala Siriwardene will be one of the key players for Sri Lanka with both bat and ball and showed she is capable of rising to the big occasion with four wickets in the Asia Cup 2008 Final.

A lack of match experience could potentially damage its hopes, but by losing to India by only 29 runs in one of the Asia Cup group matches, Sri Lanka showed it has the potential to be competitive against the top sides and a 3-2 defeat of the West Indies in late 2008 gave the side a huge confidence boost.

It will also be keen to improve on performances at the 2005 event, where Sri Lanka's batting struggled to deal with superior bowling, with only two batters passing the fifty mark during the tournament.

58 all out against New Zealand and 57 all out against Australia was particularly disappointing, although it secured a top six spot at the event with a shock 32-run win over hosts South Africa.

SELECT PLAYERS

Shashikala Siriwardena (Captain) Sanduni Abeywickrama Suwini de Alwis Hiruka Fernando Rose Fernando Inoka Galagedera Gayathri Kariyawasam Eshani Lokusooriya Dilani Manodara Chamari Polgampola Udeshika Prabodani Deepika Rasangika Dedunu de Silva Sripali Weerakkody Chandi Wickremasinghe

ICC Women's World Cup 2009 Teams: South Africa

ICC Women's World Cup 2009 - Teams

South Africa

Sunette Loubser leads her South African team to the event looking to improve on its performance the last time it played at a major tournament.

South Africa's performances on home soil during the Women's World Cup in 2005 were so disappointing that they were forced to qualify for the 2009 event.

But South Africa now looks a more formidable outfit and coasted through the ICC Women's World Cup Qualifier (ICC WWCQ) in 2008 without ever looking in trouble.

Although it enjoyed a comfortable series win over Ireland in July 2008, a failure to win a single game against England in the ODI and Twenty20 series shows how much work the side still has to do to catch up with the top four.

Claire Terblanche, Susan Benade and Cri-Zelda Brits help form a powerful batting unit, while Alicia Smith will also be expected to contribute.

Smith was joint leading wicket taker at the ICC WWCQ, and with several belligerent innings against England last year she showed she has the potential to be a world-class all rounder, while spinner Loubser can always be relied upon for wickets.

The big blow to South African cricket in the past year has been the loss of Johmari Logtenberg, who chose to give up the sport in order to pursue a career in golf.

SELECT PLAYERS

Sunette Loubser (Captain) Alicia Smith (Vice Captain) Susan Benade Cri-Zelda Brits Trisha Chetty Mignon du Preez Shandre Fritz Shabnim Ismail Marizanne Kapp Ashlyn Kilowan Marcia Letsoalo Claire Terblanche Charlize van der Westhuizen Yolandi Van Der Westhuizen Dane Van Niekerk

ICC Women's World Cup 2009 Teams: Pakistan

ICC Women's World Cup 2009 - Teams

Pakistan

Urooj Mumtaz's side qualified for this event as a result of reaching the final of the ICC Women's World Cup Qualifier.

After surprising Ireland in the ICC Women's World Cup Qualifier in Stellenbosch in February 2008, a comprehensive victory in the semi-final over the Netherlands helped seal a place for Australia for 2009.

Sana Mir was outstanding throughout the event and it was her wicket taking abilities that helped her capture the Player of the Tournament Award.

Indeed Pakistan will look to its spin attack to provide excellent back up to the pace of Asmavia Iqbal.

With the bat, Bismah Maroof has the ability to score runs at this level, but much improvement will be needed by the batting line-up which has failed too often on the big occasion in recent times, such as in the ICC Women's World Cup Qualifier Final against South Africa.

It had a disappointing event at the Asia Cup 2008, registering only one win in the tournament over Bangladesh, having earlier suffered a humiliating defeat against the same opposition, but there were some positives with Urooj Mumtaz scoring her first ODI fifty.

SELECT PLAYERS

Urooj Mumtaz (Captain) Sana Mir (Vice Captain) Almas Akram Armaan Khan Asmavia Iqbal Batool Fatima Bismah Maroof Javeria Khan Nahida Khan Naila Nazir Nain Abidi Qanita Jalil Sajida Shah Sania Khan Sukhan Faiz