India hosted the Women’s Cricket World Cup for the first time in 1978 after South Africa was barred due to apartheid. Despite home advantage, India didn’t win a match in the four-team tournament, which saw Australia emerge victorious.
India is set to host the 13th edition of the Women’s ODI World Cup, which will take place from September 30 to November 2. For the last time, the prestigious women’s tournament will witness eight teams vying for the coveted trophy, as the 2029 Women’s World Cup will expand to a 10-team competition.
In July 2022, India was picked as the host for the Women’s World Cup 2025 by the International Cricket Council. However, this will not be the first time that India has hosted a marquee event. The country was the host for the 1973, 1997, and 2013 editions of the prestigious women’s tournament. India is set to become the first country to host four editions of the Women’s ODI World Cup.
As India is set to host the Women’s ODI World Cup 2025, let’s dive into the country hosting the second edition of the tournament in 1978.
India’s historic hosting of the 1978 World Cup
The first edition of the Women’s World Cup was held in England, and the hosts won the inaugural edition of the tournament in 1973. Interestingly, the Women’s World Cup took place two years before the inaugural edition of the Men’s event. Just five years later, the second edition of the World Cup was supposed to be hosted by South Africa, but the nation was barred from participating in international cricket due to apartheid policies.
This resulted in the tournament being relocated to India, marking the country’s first time hosting the Women’s World Cup. India was hosting an international tournament for the first time. Initially, six teams were supposed to participate in the tournament, but the Netherlands and the West Indies withdrew from the tournament due to financial constraints.
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The second edition of the Women’s World Cup was a four-team tournament, with hosts India, Australia, New Zealand, and defending champions England. A total of seven matches, including the final, were played across four venues, including Kolkata’s Eden Gardens, Hyderabad’s Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium, Moin-ul-Haq Stadium in Patna, and Jamshedpur’s Keenan Stadium.
Despite being hosts of the prestigious tournament and having home advantage, India could not win a single match, losing to Australia, New Zealand, and England. Australia and England finished in the top two on points and qualified for the final, where Australia clinched their maiden Women’s World Cup title with an 8-wicket win over the defending champions.
How did the Women’s World Cup come to India?
When the first Women’s World Cup was played in 1973, Indian women’s cricket was at the nascent stage, but there were legends like Shantha Rangaswamy and Sandhya Mazumdar, who were pioneering the sport in the country. But there was another important role in the growth of Indian women’s cricket, Mahendra Kumar Sharma.
Mahendra Kumar Sharma was a cricket enthusiast and was the founder of the Women’s Cricket Association of India (WCAI), which later became the BCCI Women’s Cricket. WCAI was founded in the year when the first Women’s World Cup was played, and played a pivotal role in organizing, promoting, and structuring women’s cricket in India.
Over the next five years, the Women’s Cricket Association of India organized several tournaments and made a bid to host the Women’s World Cup in 1978. When South Africa pulled out of the tournament as the hosts and participating nation, Mahendra Kumar Sharma utilised this opportunity and a successful bid through WCAI to make India as primary host of the 1978 Women’s World Cup.
International Women’s Cricket Council’s Role in organizing the World Cup in India
The Women’s Cricket Association of India managed to secure the rights to host the Women’s World Cup in India in 1978. However, there was an issue. A week before the commencement of the second edition of the tournament, the Netherlands and the West Indies withdrew from the tournament.
The tournament was supposed to be the first six-team Women’s World Cup, but it became a four-team contest between hosts India, Australia, England, and New Zealand. However, the Women’s World Cup of 1978 was on the verge of being cancelled because of a smaller number of teams. Then came into the picture the International Women’s Cricket Council, which played a pivotal role in ensuring that the World Cup took place in India.
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“Sharma set the foundation stone for women’s cricket in the country. His efforts in setting up the WCAI and getting recognition from the world body – International Women’s Cricket Council (IWCC) – as well as the Indian government, was huge at the time,” former India women allrounder Shubhangi Kulkarni said as quoted by ESPN Cricinfo in November 2022.
Though India did not qualify for the final of the 1978 Women’s World Cup, the country managed to successfully host the prestigious tournament and, in the process, laid the groundwork for the growth and recognition of women’s cricket in India.