1978 Women's Cricket World Cup

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.

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.

Squads

Information is only available for players who played at least one match at the tournament.

Venues

• Eden Gardens, Calcutta – one match
• Keenan Stadium, Jamshedpur – one match
• Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium, Hyderabad – two matches
• Moin-ul-Haq Stadium, Patna – two matches

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.

Group stage

Points table

• 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).

Matches

New Zealand vs Australia

India vs England

New Zealand vs India

Pat Carrick 2/26 (9 overs)

India vs Australia

New Zealand vs England

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.

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.

The tournament nonetheless attracted large crowds.

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.

Source: ESPNcricinfo CricketArchive

Most wickets

The top five wicket takers are listed in this table, ranked by wickets taken and then by bowling average.

Source: ESPNcricinfo

References

References

1. Fernando, Benita. (22 June 2019). "A World Cup lost and found". Mint.
2. [https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/1/Womens_World_Cup_1977-78/Batting_by_Runs.html Women's World Cup 1977/78 (ordered by runs)] – CricketArchive. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
3. [https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/1/Womens_World_Cup_1977-78/Bowling_by_Wickets.html Women's World Cup 1977/78 (ordered by wickets)] – CricketArchive. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
4. Velija, Philippa. (2015). "Women's Cricket and Global Processes: The Emergence and Development of Women's Cricket as a Global Game". Palgrave Macmillan.
5. Abhishek Mukherjee (15 January 2014). [http://www.cricketcountry.com/articles/australia-women-lift-1978-world-cup-the-tournament-which-was-almost-calld-off-85737 "Australia Women lift 1978 World Cup — the tournament which was almost called off"] – CricketCountry. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
6. "Quick, quick Snow". ESPNcricinfo.
7. [https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/1/Womens_World_Cup_1977-78/Australia_Women_Batting.html Batting and fielding for Australia women], Women's World Cup 1977/78 – CricketArchive. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
8. [https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/1/Womens_World_Cup_1977-78/England_Women_Batting.html Batting and fielding for England women], Women's World Cup 1977/78 – CricketArchive. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
9. [https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/1/Womens_World_Cup_1977-78/India_Women_Batting.html Batting and fielding for India women], Women's World Cup 1977/78 – CricketArchive. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
10. [https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/1/Womens_World_Cup_1977-78/New_Zealand_Women_Batting.html Batting and fielding for New Zealand women], Women's World Cup 1977/78 – CricketArchive. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
11. [https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/1/Womens_World_Cup_1977-78.html Women's World Cup 1977/78] – CricketArchive. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
12. [https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/Tables/0/Shell_Bicentennial_Womens_World_Cup_1988-89.html Shell Bicentennial Women's World Cup 1988/89 table] – CricketArchive. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
13. Bunce, Pauline. (1978). "World Cup a Shamble". Sportsweek.
14. 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). [http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/393264.html "'Our laundry laid out to dry on the rocks'"] – ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 30 August 2015.