On Sep­tem­ber 30, the In­ter­na­tion­al Crick­et Coun­cil (ICC) Women’s Crick­et World Cup will be­gin, not just as a show­case of elite ath­leti­cism but as a com­pelling lens through which to view diplo­ma­cy, gen­der eq­ui­ty, and re­gion­al ten­sion.

Joint­ly host­ed by In­dia and Sri Lan­ka, this year’s tour­na­ment op­er­ates un­der an un­prece­dent­ed "hy­brid mod­el." This for­mat, born out of strained In­dia–Pak­istan re­la­tions, sees match­es in­volv­ing the two na­tions host­ed in sep­a­rate coun­tries—a del­i­cate com­pro­mise that re­flects both geopo­lit­i­cal re­al­i­ty and the tour­na­ment's com­mit­ment to fair­ness and con­ti­nu­ity.

In­crease in Prize Mon­ey and SDG 5

For the first time in Women’s World Cup his­to­ry, prize mon­ey will match that of the men's tour­na­ment, thanks to a land­mark de­ci­sion by ICC. This his­toric move aligns with the Unit­ed Na­tions Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Goal 5 (SDG 5): Gen­der Equal­i­ty, and sig­nals how even male-dom­i­nat­ed in­sti­tu­tions can evolve to sup­port sys­temic change.

The to­tal prize pool for the 2025 tour­na­ment is US$13.88 mil­lion, near­ly four times the $3.5 mil­lion of­fered in the 2022 edi­tion.

· The win­ners will re­ceive $4.48 mil­lion, up from $1.32 mil­lion in 2022—an in­crease of rough­ly 239%.

· The run­ners-up prize is now $2.24 mil­lion, up from $600,000 in 2022—a 273% in­crease.

· Two los­ing semi­fi­nal­ists will re­ceive $1.12 mil­lion each, com­pared with $300,000 in 2022.

Oth­er pay­outs re­flect this pat­tern of growth and in­clu­sion:

· Every par­tic­i­pat­ing team is guar­an­teed $250,000.

· Teams fin­ish­ing fifth and sixth will each take $700,000; sev­enth and eighth will get $280,000 each.

· For each group-stage win, a team earns $34,314.

This ad­just­ment is more than sym­bol­ic. Equal prize mon­ey sends a pow­er­ful mes­sage: women’s sport is not sec­ondary, and ex­cel­lence de­serves equal re­ward—on and off the field. Gov­ern­ing bod­ies like the ICC are in­creas­ing­ly be­ing seen not just as ad­min­is­tra­tors of the game, but as agents of progress who can re­shape long-stand­ing dis­par­i­ties in glob­al sport.

Dom­i­nance and the Per­form­ers

No dis­cus­sion of the Women’s World Cup is com­plete with­out ac­knowl­edg­ing Aus­tralia, the tour­na­ment’s most dom­i­nant force. With sev­en ti­tles, in­clud­ing their vic­to­ry in 2022 over Eng­land, Aus­tralia re­mains the gold stan­dard in women’s crick­et.

Eng­land, with four cham­pi­onships, and New Zealand, with one, round out the list of past win­ners. In­dia, the co-hosts, have come heart­break­ing­ly close—reach­ing the fi­nal in 2005 and 2017—but are still seek­ing their maid­en tro­phy.

Record high­lights

· High­est In­di­vid­ual Score: Be­lin­da Clark’s 229 vs Den­mark (1997) re­mains un­matched.

· Best Bowl­ing Fig­ures: Jack­ie Lord’s 6/10 vs In­dia (1982) still tops the charts.

· Most Suc­cess­ful Cap­tains: Aus­tralia’s Meg Lan­ning (two ti­tles) and Be­lin­da Clark set the bar for lead­er­ship ex­cel­lence.

All-time greats: The record hold­ers

· Most Ca­reer Runs: Deb­bie Hock­ley (New Zealand) – 1,501 runs

· Most Ca­reer Wick­ets: Jhu­lan Goswa­mi (In­dia) – 43 wick­ets

These play­ers de­fine con­sis­ten­cy, en­durance, and bril­liance at the high­est lev­el.

West In­dies miss out — On the field and fi­nan­cial­ly!

One of the biggest sto­ry­lines head­ing in­to the 2025 Women’s World Cup is the ab­sence of the West In­dies, who reached the semi­fi­nals just three years ago in 2022. The last time the West In­dies missed out on the World Cup was in 2000. In a close­ly fought qual­i­fy­ing tour­na­ment, the Caribbean side was edged out by Bangladesh on Net Run Rate, af­ter in­con­sis­tent per­for­mances in the group stage.

Cap­tain Hay­ley Matthews ad­mit­ted that missed chances ear­ly on proved cost­ly. How­ev­er, the dis­ap­point­ment ex­tends be­yond miss­ing the crick­et—it al­so means for­feit­ing a share of the record-break­ing prize mon­ey.

With each par­tic­i­pat­ing team guar­an­teed US$250,000, and ad­di­tion­al bonus­es for match wins and high­er place­ments, miss­ing the World Cup rep­re­sents a sig­nif­i­cant fi­nan­cial loss for West In­dies play­ers. At a time when in­vest­ment in women’s crick­et across the Caribbean is al­ready lim­it­ed, the ab­sence from the main event on­ly deep­ens the gap.

It’s a stark re­minder that as the glob­al game grows, no team—re­gard­less of his­to­ry—can af­ford to fall be­hind. This high­lights the press­ing need for im­proved in­fra­struc­ture, ad­e­quate fund­ing, and sus­tained sup­port for women’s crick­et in the West In­dies. There­fore, had the team qual­i­fied and not won any match­es and placed ei­ther sev­enth or eighth, they would have earned US$530,000!

Teams and tal­ents to watch

The eight teams com­pet­ing are: Aus­tralia, Eng­land, New Zealand, South Africa, In­dia, Sri Lan­ka, Pak­istan, and Bangladesh.

· Aus­tralia, with cap­tain Alyssa Healy, re­mains favourites: deep squad, top tal­ent.

· In­dia, backed by home sup­port and bal­anced re­sources, has strong mo­men­tum.

· Eng­land, un­der Nat Sciv­er-Brunt, wants to re­claim glo­ry af­ter 2022’s loss.

· South Africa and New Zealand of­fer both ex­pe­ri­ence and new stars.

· Bangladesh, Sri Lan­ka, and Pak­istan aim to up­set ex­pec­ta­tions.

Play­ers to watch

Bat­ters:

· Sm­ri­ti Mand­hana (In­dia) – el­e­gant, de­pend­able bat­ting at the top.

· Lau­ra Wolvaardt (South Africa) – con­sis­ten­cy and lead­er­ship.

· Nat Sciv­er-Brunt (Eng­land) – her all-round game can swing match­es.

Bowlers:

· So­phie Ec­cle­stone (Eng­land) – spin wiz­ardry.

· Megan Schutt (Aus­tralia) – pace, swing, old/new ball threats.

· Deep­ti Shar­ma (In­dia) – smart all-round con­tri­bu­tions.

This year’s World Cup is not just about re­sults. It’s a show­case of what crick­et can be­come—a dri­ver of equal­i­ty. With equal pay and ris­ing tal­ent from across the globe, the 2025 Women’s World Cup re­flects the kind of sport the world is striv­ing for—in­clu­sive, pro­gres­sive, and proud­ly com­pet­i­tive.