1978 Women's Cricket World Cup

June 2026 May 2026 1978 Women's Cricket World Cup 1978 Women's Cricket World Cup.png 1 13 January 1978 International Women's Cricket Council Women's One Day International (50-over) Round-robin India Australia 1 England 4 6 AUS Margaret Jennings (127) AUS Sharyn Hill (7) 1973 1973 Women's Cricket World Cup 1982 1982 Women's Cricket World Cup The 1978 Women's Cricket World Cup was an international cricket tournament played in India from 1 to 13 January 1978. Hosted by India for the first time, it was the second edition of the Women's Cricket World Cup, after the inaugural 1973 World Cup in England. The World Cup was the first international cricket tournament hosted by India.https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/ideas/a-world-cup-lost-and-found-111641555305806.html A World Cup lost and found Mint Benita Fernando 22 June 2019 25 August 2025 Only four teams participated, the lowest number in the tournament's history – Australia, England, India and New Zealand. The teams played a round-robin tournament of three matches each, with Australia going undefeated to claim its first title. Australia's captain, Margaret Jennings, led the tournament in runs, while her teammate, Sharyn Hill, led the tournament in wickets. Three of the five highest scorers as well as three of the five leading wicket-takers in the tournament were from Australia. Sharon Tredrea featured in both lists, being the second-highest wicket-taker and fourth-highest scorer of the tournament.Women's World Cup 1977/78 (ordered by runs) – CricketArchive. Retrieved 30 August 2015.Women's World Cup 1977/78 (ordered by wickets) – CricketArchive. Retrieved 30 August 2015. Background It was originally proposed that South Africa host the World Cup, but this was abandoned to conform with the Apartheid-era sporting boycott of the country. The Women's Cricket Association of India (WCAI) then made a successful bid, and served as the primary organiser, with the International Women's Cricket Council (IWCC) providing only limited oversight.Velija Philippa 2015 Women's Cricket and Global Processes: The Emergence and Development of Women's Cricket as a Global Game https://books.google.com/books?id=DJMMCgAAQBAJ Palgrave Macmillan 99 9781137323538 Participating teams Along with India, which was making its debut, five other teams were originally invited – Australia, England, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the West Indies. The Netherlands and the West Indies, which had both not previously participated, were forced to withdraw due to financial issues.Abhishek Mukherjee (15 January 2014). "Australia Women lift 1978 World Cup — the tournament which was almost called off" – CricketCountry. Retrieved 30 August 2015.http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/149452.html Quick, quick Snow ESPNcricinfo 16 January 2019 Squads Information is only available for players who played at least one match at the tournament. AUSBatting and fielding for Australia women, Women's World Cup 1977/78 – CricketArchive. Retrieved 29 August 2015. ENGBatting and fielding for England women, Women's World Cup 1977/78 – CricketArchive. Retrieved 29 August 2015. INDBatting and fielding for India women, Women's World Cup 1977/78 – CricketArchive. Retrieved 29 August 2015. NZLBatting and fielding for New Zealand women, Women's World Cup 1977/78 – CricketArchive. Retrieved 29 August 2015. Margaret Jennings (c) Elaine Bray Marie Cornish Valerie Farrell Lorraine Hill Sharyn Hill Wendy Hills Jan Lumsden Julie Stockton Raelee Thompson Janette Tredrea Sharon Tredrea Peta Verco Mary Pilling (c) Jacqueline Court Heather Dewdney Rosalind Heggs Shirley Hodges Glynis Hullah Megan Lear Catherine Mowat Lynne Thomas Chris Watmough Margaret Wilks Diana Edulji (c) Gargi Banerji Runa Basu Lopamudra Bhattacharji Sharmila Chakraborty Rajeshwari Dholakia Susan Itticheria Nilima Jogalekar Fowzieh Khalili Shubhangi Kulkarni Sandhya Mazumdar Ujwala Nikam Shobha Pandit Kalpan Paropkari Sudha Shah Anjali Sharma Trish McKelvey (c) Liz Allan Eileen Badham Barbara Bevege Vicki Burtt Pat Carrick Sheree Harris Cheryl Henshilwood Linda Lindsay Karen Marsh Sue Rattray Edna Ryan Viv Sexton Venues India 400 center Four venues hosted matches at the 1978 Women's World Cup: Eden Gardens, Calcutta – one match Keenan Stadium, Jamshedpur – one match Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium, Hyderabad – two matches Moin-ul-Haq Stadium, Patna – two matches India 22 48 86 11 left Jamshedpur 80 India 22 34 88 20 right Calcutta 80 India 25 36 85 10 right Patna 80 India 17 24 78 28 right Hyderabad 80 Warm-up matches At least five warm-up matches were played against various local Indian teams, all but one of which came before the tournament.Women's World Cup 1977/78 – CricketArchive. Retrieved 29 August 2015. Warm-up matches background:lightblue; 28 December 1977 ENG IND East Zone Result unknown Eden Gardens, Calcutta, West Bengal 28 December 1977 NZL IND West Bengal WCA President's XI Result unknown Calcutta Cricket and Football Club, Calcutta, West Bengal 28 December 1977 AUS IND Indian Universities Women's Team Result unknown Pune, Maharashtra (exact venue unknown) 30 December 1977 ENG IND West Bengal WCA President's XI Result unknown Calcutta Cricket and Football Club, Calcutta, West Bengal 2 January 1978 ENG IND East Zone Result unknown Eden Gardens, Calcutta, West Bengal Group stage Points table main CricketRR complete ESPNcricinfoCricketArchive RR AUS, ENG, NZL, IND Q #cfc AUS 3 0 427 130.5 1 ENG 2 1 321 120.5 1 IND 0 3 272 136.5 1 NZL 1 2 399 143.4 1 Note: run rate was to be used as a tiebreaker in the case of teams finishing on an equal number of points, rather than net run rate (as is now common).Shell Bicentennial Women's World Cup 1988/89 table – CricketArchive. Retrieved 29 August 2015. Matches New Zealand vs Australia 1 January AUS 177 (49.2 overs) Wendy Hills 64 Barb Bevege 3/17 (9.2 overs) NZL 111/8 (50 overs) Trish McKelvey 37 Sharyn Hill 3/16 (10 overs) Australia won by 66 runs Scorecard Keenan Stadium, Jamshedpur, Bihar (now Jharkhand) KVK Rao (IND) and Sukha Bose (IND) Australia won the toss and elected to bat. Peta Verco, Sharyn Hill (Aus), Cheryl Henshilwood, Edna Ryan, Pat Carrick, Sheree Harris, Vicki Burtt and Viv Sexton (NZ) all made their WODI debuts. India vs England 1 January IND 63 (39.3 overs) Diana Edulji 18 Margaret Wilks 2/6 (6 overs) ENG 65/1 (30.2 overs) Lynne Thomas 43* Diana Edulji 1/18 (10 overs) England won by 9 wickets Scorecard Eden Gardens, Calcutta, West Bengal Bhairab Ganguly (IND) and Sunit Ghosh (IND) England won the toss and elected to bowl. Anjali Sharma, Diana Edulji, Fowzieh Khalili, Gargi Banerjee, Kalpan Paropkari, Lopamudra Bhattacharji, Nilima Jogalekar, Runa Basu, Sandhya Mazumdar, Sharmila Chakraborty, Shobha Pandit (Ind) and Catherine Mowat (Eng) all made their WODI debuts. New Zealand vs India 5 January IND 130/9 (50 overs) Ujwala Nikam 31* Linda Lindsay 2/26 (10 overs) Pat Carrick 2/26 (9 overs) NZL 131/1 (44 overs) Barb Bevege 67* Anjali Sharma 1/32 (10 overs) New Zealand won by 9 wickets Scorecard Moin-ul-Haq Stadium, Patna, Bihar India won the toss and elected to bat. Shubhangi Kulkarni, Sudha Shah, Susan Itticheria, Ujwala Nikam (Ind) and Linda Lindsay (NZ) all made their WODI debuts. India vs Australia 8 January AUS 150/8 (50 overs) Sharon Tredrea 56 Lopamudra Bhattacharji 2/23 (10 overs) IND 79 (47.2 overs) Shobha Pandit 17 Peta Verco 3/9 (9 overs) Australia won by 71 runs Scorecard Moin-ul-Haq Stadium, Patna, Bihar KVK Rao (IND) and Sukha Bose (IND) India won the toss and elected to bowl. Rajeshwari Dholakia (Ind) made her WODI debut. New Zealand vs England 8 January NZL 157 (49.4 overs) Barb Bevege 57 Jacqueline Court 4/29 (10 overs) ENG 160/3 (40.3 overs) Lynne Thomas 47 Sue Rattray 2/33 (6 overs) England won by 7 wickets Scorecard Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (now Telangana) England won the toss and elected to bowl. Karen Hadlee (NZ) made her WODI debut. England vs Australia Both Australia and England went into the last match of the tournament undefeated, which meant it functioned as a de facto final, akin to the Uruguay v Brazil match at the 1950 Football World Cup. 13 January ENG 96/8 (50 overs) Shirley Hodges 26 Sharon Tredrea 4/25 (10 overs) AUS 100/2 (31.3 overs) Margaret Jennings 57* Glynis Hullah 2/9 (6 overs) Australia won by 8 wickets Scorecard Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (now Telangana) SA Swaminathan (IND) and V. K. Ramaswamy (IND) Australia won the toss and elected to bowl. Notable aspects The World Cup was reportedly poorly organised, with the conflicts between the WCAI, Indian state governments and the national governments. The visiting international teams were advised that the tournament would be held from 29 December 1977 to 23 January 1978 and were requested to arrive in mid-December for warm-up matches. They arrived to find that no matches had been organised; the WCAI issued an itinerary after the first match, but only around half of the anticipated matches were completed.World Cup a Shamble Pauline Bunce Sportsweek 1978 The tournament nonetheless attracted large crowds. England's Megan Lear later recounted that the "most memorable part of [the] tournament was playing in front of crowds of 40,000 plus".(5 March 2009). "'Our laundry laid out to dry on the rocks'" – ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 30 August 2015. The Indians were the first women's team to play in trousers; at the previous World Cup all teams had played in skirts. Statistics Most runs The top five runscorers are included in this table, ranked by runs scored and then by batting average. Player Team Runs Inns Avg Highest 100s 50s Margaret Jennings AUS 127 3 63.50 57* 0 1 Barbara Bevege NZ 126 3 63.00 67* 0 2 Lynne Thomas ENG 109 3 54.50 47 0 0 Sharon Tredrea AUS 87 2 43.50 56 0 1 Wendy Hills AUS 66 3 22.00 64 0 1 Source: ESPNcricinfo CricketArchive Most wickets The top five wicket takers are listed in this table, ranked by wickets taken and then by bowling average. Player Team Overs Wkts Ave SR Econ BBI Sharyn Hill AUS 30.0 7 7.57 25.71 1.76 3/16 Sharon Tredrea AUS 25.0 6 7.00 25.00 1.68 4/25 Pat Carrick NZ 29.0 6 17.66 29.00 3.65 3/43 Glynis Hullah ENG 21.1 5 6.80 25.40 1.60 2/2 Peta Verco AUS 23.0 5 7.40 27.60 1.60 3/9 Source: ESPNcricinfo References 30em Category:1978 in women's cricket 1978 Category:1978 in Indian cricket World Cup 1978 Category:January 1978 sports events in Asia