Women's cricket is the form of the
team sport
of cricket
that is played by
women.
History
The first recorded Women's cricket match was reported in The Reading
Mercury on 26
July 1745 and
took place between the villages of
Bramley and
Hambledon near
Guildford
in Surrey. The
Mercury reported:
- "The greatest cricket match that was played in this part of England was
on Friday, the 26th of last month, on Gosden Common, near Guildford, between
eleven maids of Bramley and eleven maids of Hambledon, all dressed in white. The
Bramley maids had blue ribbons and the Hambledon maids red ribbons on their
heads. The Bramley girls got 119 notches and the Hambledon girls 127. There was
of bothe sexes the greatest number that ever was seen on such an occasion. The
girls bowled, batted, ran and catches as well as most men could do in that
game."
Originally,
cricket deliveries were bowled
underarm.
Legend has it that
roundarm
bowling action was pioneered by
Christina Willes in the early 1800s, to avoid becoming ensnared in her
skirts.
The first women's cricket club was formed in 1887 at
Nun Appleton in
Yorkshire
and named the
White Heather Club. In 1890, a team known as the
Original English Lady Cricketers, toured England, playing in exhibition
matches to large crowds.
[2] The
Women's Cricket Association was founded in 1926, and the first overseas tour
was made to
Australia and
New
Zealand in 1934-35 which included the first
Women's Test match between
England and
Australia in December
1934.
In
Australia, the
Victoria Women's Cricket Association was founded in 1905 and the
Australian Women's Cricket Association in 1931. The current competition is
run by the
Women's National Cricket League.
The
International Women's Cricket Council was formed in 1958 to coordinate
women's cricket which was now being played regularly in Australia, England, New
Zealand,
South
Africa, the
West
Indies,
Denmark and the
Netherlands. England toured South Africa in 1960-61, and the first
Women's Cricket World Cup was held in England in 1973, won by the hosts.
Lord's Cricket Ground staged its first women's
Test
match in 1979, between England and Australia.
In 2005, after the eighth Women's World Cup, the International Women's
Cricket Council was officially integrated under the umbrella of the
International Cricket Council, and an ICC Women's Cricket Committee was
formed to consider all matters relating to women's cricket.[3]
Women's Test cricket
Women's Test cricket has been played since December 1934. Current
international women's cricket teams include ten Test teams, as follows:
-
Australia
-
England
-
India
-
Ireland
-
Netherlands
-
New Zealand
-
Pakistan
-
South Africa
-
Sri Lanka
-
West Indies
Note that
Bangladesh
and Zimbabwe
do not play women's Test cricket although they do have men's teams, and
that Ireland
and the Netherlands are Test nations in women's cricket but not in the men's
game.
Women's ODI cricket
Women's One-day Internationals have been played since 1973. The first
Women's Cricket World Cup competition was held in 1973, two years before the
first men's
Cricket World Cup. The following women's cricket teams have fielded one-day
international sides but do not play Test cricket:
The following sides competed in the first women's world cup, but no longer
field sides at this level.
-
International XI
-
Jamaica
-
Trinidad & Tobago
-
Young England
Wiki Source
