Excitement Is Brewing Over The Women’s T20 Cricket World Cup As A Long-Standing Crowd Record Could Break

Four years ago, during the early stages of planning for the women’s and men’s 2020 T20 World Cups in Australia, tournament organizers realized standalone events should be implemented for the first time.

They could feel momentum bubbling in women’s cricket and the success of the Women’s Big Bash League in Australia confirmed their beliefs. A decision in 2016 was made to split the tournaments with the women’s held eight months ahead of the men’s.

And the era-defining women’s tournament is set to dominate the conversation in the sports-obsessed nation over the next couple of weeks.

February has become a strange sports month in Australia. It’s a transition between the dominant summer sport cricket – and tennis to a lesser extent – and the winter powerhouses of Australian rules football and rugby league.

Australian cricket administrators have been trying to ward off Australian Football League’s bold land grab in a bid to seize cricket's traditional late summer turf. Starting in 2017, the AFL women’s is played in February-March and has gained in popularity.

The Big Bash League - Australian cricket’s domestic T20 competition - in recent years has stretched into February with mixed results although television figures remain strong.

The women’s T20 World Cup has a golden opportunity to fill cricket’s void and capture new fans worldwide starting with a blockbuster on Friday between hosts Australia and emerging power India.

There has been a lot of hype and intrigue over the tournament due to strong marketing over the past 12 months from the International Cricket Council and the Australian government. It also underlines the burgeoning momentum behind women’s sport in Australia with cricket at the forefront.

“We are seeing professionalizing of women’s cricket,” tournament chief executive Nick Hockley told me during a women’s T20 World Cup promotional event in Sydney last year. “The momentum is incredible and we have bold ambitions for this tournament.”

The boldest goal is to break the 20-year attendance record for a women's sports event. The 90,185 landmark figure was set at the 1999 women's soccer World Cup final between the U.S. and China at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

The T20 World Cup final on March 8 – which is International Women’s Day – is hoped to smash the record at the colosseum-like Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). American pop star Katy Perry will add to the pizzazz with performances before and after the final.

Cynics may eye-roll, but plenty of investment has been done behind the scenes to ensure there is a realistic shot of a new landmark being set.

For that to happen, hot favorites Australia will probably have to be there and pitted against old rival England or cricket powerhouse India. Four-time winners Australia remain the standard after utterly dominating the women’s game.

Superstars Meg Lanning and Ellyse Perry have become household names in their country testament to Cricket Australia’s dogged efforts in promoting women’s cricket. The governing body - at the coalface of professionalizing women’s cricket – last year pledged for pay equality for its men’s and women’s teams at the T20 World Cups.

Australia should be challenged in a pointed sign of the improved depth of women’s cricket. England and the West Indies are the only other teams to have lifted the title although the latter has fallen away in recent times.

India, unsurprisingly, loom as the sleeping giant having made a significant breakthrough at the 50-over World Cup in 2017 where they lost a pulsating final to hosts England amid scenes of bedlam at Lord’s.

Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur enjoyed widespread popularity back home after a starring turn at the tournament, while teen batting sensation Shafali Verma could have a similar breakout in Australia. If India wins the tournament, it will have a lasting imprint on the game – much like when the men’s team famously won the World Cup in 1983 to inspire a generation.

“If we win the World Cup things are going to change," Kaur told The Age. "No doubt about it."

India’s professionalism contrasts with Pakistan and Sri Lanka, where the women’s game in those countries have yet to enjoy significant investment and, unsurprisingly, both teams are unfancied coming into the tournament.

The Cinderella story is Thailand, who only played its first match 12 years ago being, of course, not a Commonwealth country with cricket tradition. Whether they prove competitive or not is insignificant.

Thailand’s surprising rise underpins how cricket’s shortest format can grow the sport beyond traditional boundaries and that women can be the driving force of the development.  

“I hope the legacy of the (women’s) tournament will be people looking back at this moment where there was a seismic shift towards genuine equality in sport,” Hockley says.

The time has finally arrived for the T20 World Cup - a tournament that could well prove a harbinger for women’s cricket.