The ICC Women’s World Cup 2024 will be “the first World Cup where women will re­ceive the same prize mon­ey as their male coun­ter­parts, mark­ing a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone in the sport’s his­to­ry,” ac­cord­ing to the ICC.

The 2024 edi­tion of the T20 World Cup win­ner will re­ceive US$2.34 mil­lion, a 134 per cent in­crease on the US$1 mil­lion the 2023 win­ner (Aus­tralia) re­ceived. 

The run­ners-up will al­so re­ceive a 134 per cent in­crease from US$500,000 (South Africa in 2023) to US$1.17 mil­lion. The two los­ing se­mi-fi­nal­ists will al­so re­ceive an in­crease in earn­ings from US$210,000 in 2023 to US$675,000 in 2024.

There are al­so in­creas­es in earn­ings for wins in the group stage and for the teams that do not make it in­to the se­mi-fi­nals. Over­all, the to­tal earn­ings in­crease from the 2023 World Cup is 225 per cent, from US$2.45 mil­lion to US$7,958,080.

Aus­tralia’s cap­tain, Alyssa Healy, will seek to con­tin­ue her team’s dom­i­nance by win­ning their sev­enth ti­tle, al­ready win­ning six (2010, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2020, and 2023) of the pre­vi­ous eight edi­tions. Eng­land won the in­au­gur­al World Cup in 2009, and the West In­dies won in 2016. Aus­tralia has played sev­en of the eight fi­nals. Al­though Aus­tralia will start as a favourite, they can ex­pect keen com­pe­ti­tion from Eng­land and In­dia. Aus­tralia’s ex­pe­ri­ence and ver­sa­til­i­ty in bat­ting, pow­er hit­ting, bowl­ing di­ver­si­ty—pace and spin—and field­ing give them a start­ing edge over their ri­vals. The team’s win­ning cul­ture is cen­tral to its com­pet­i­tive­ness.

The World Cup’s ninth edi­tion will fea­ture ten teams. Group A com­pris­es Aus­tralia, In­dia, New Zealand, Pak­istan, and Sri Lan­ka. Group B com­pris­es Eng­land, South Africa, the West In­dies, Scot­land, and Bangladesh. The first two teams in each group will con­test the se­mi-fi­nals, with the win­ners play­ing the fi­nals at the Dubai In­ter­na­tion­al Crick­et Sta­di­um, Dubai, on Oc­to­ber 20.

Since the last World Cup in 2023, Eng­land, In­dia, and Sri Lan­ka have been mak­ing strides to­wards match­ing the bench­mark es­tab­lished by Aus­tralia with in­creas­es in strike rates, the num­ber of fours and six­es, re­duc­tions in dot ball per­cent­ages, greater bowl­ing va­ri­ety and sub­tle­ness, and im­proved fit­ness and field­ing. Some of the game-chang­ers are Hay­ley Matthews, Chamari Atha­p­aththu, Dan­ni Wy­att, Nat Sciv­er-Brunt, Thalia Mc­Grath, Sm­ri­ti Mand­hana, Har­man­preet Kaur, Lau­ren Bell, So­phie Ec­cle­stone, Amelia Kerr, Lau­ra Wolvaardt, and Ma­rizanne Kapp, among oth­ers.

The con­tin­ued evo­lu­tion of the women’s game is the prod­uct of de­vel­op­ment struc­tures, es­pe­cial­ly in Aus­tralia, Eng­land, and now In­dia, with the growth of fran­chise leagues such as the Women Big Bash League (WB­BL), One Hun­dred, and the Women’s Pre­mier League (WPL) in In­dia.

The win­ners of the sev­en edi­tions of the World Cup have been:

• 2009: Eng­land de­feat­ed New Zealand by six wick­ets.

• 2010: Aus­tralia de­feat­ed New Zealand by three runs.

• 2012: Aus­tralia de­feat­ed Eng­land by four runs.

• 2014: Aus­tralia de­feat­ed Eng­land by six wick­ets.

• 2016: West In­dies de­feat­ed Aus­tralia by eight wick­ets.

• 2018: Aus­tralia de­feat­ed Eng­land by eight wick­ets.

• 2020: Aus­tralia de­feat­ed In­dia by 85 runs.

• 2023: Aus­tralia de­feat­ed South Africa by 18 runs.

Aus­tralia’s win­ning per­cent­age is 80.68 per cent, hav­ing played 44 games, win­ning 35, los­ing eight, and tied one. Eng­land’s is 75 per cent, hav­ing played 38 games, won 28, lost one, and tied one. The West In­dies have a win­ning per­cent­age of 58.82 per cent, with 20 wins and 14 loss­es in 34 games. Beth Mooney has the most runs in a World Cup, 259 in 2020, fol­lowed by Meg Lan­ning 257 in 2014; Stephanie Tay­lor 246 in 2016; Lau­ra Wolvaardt (South Africa) 230 runs in 2023; Alyssa Healy (Aus­tralia) 225 in 2018, and New Zealan­der Aimee Watkins 200 in 2009.

Meg Lan­ning has the high­est T20 World Cup score of 126 against Ire­land in 2014, fol­lowed by De­an­dra Dot­tin 112 against South Africa in 2010; Heather Knight (Eng­land) 108 against Thai­land in 2020; Har­man­preet Kaur (In­dia) 103 against New Zealand in 2018, Munee­ba Ali (Pak­istan) 102 against Ire­land in 2023, and Lizelle Lee (South Africa) 101 against Thai­land in 2020.

Megan Schutt (Aus­tralia) took 13 wick­ets in 2020 to match Anya Shrub­sole (Eng­land) 13 wick­ets in 2014 for the most wick­ets in a World Cup. So­phie Ec­cle­stone (Eng­land) took 11 wick­ets in 2023, and Julie Hunter (Aus­tralia) took 11 in 2012, while De­an­dra Dot­tin (West In­dies), Ash­leigh Gard­ner (Aus­tralia), and Megan Schutt took ten wick­ets each in 2018.

De­an­dra Dot­tin has the best bowl­ing fig­ures in World Cup his­to­ry, with 5/5 against Bangladesh in 2018. Sune Lu­us (South Africa), 5/8 against Ire­land in 2016, has the sec­ond-best fig­ures, fol­lowed by Ash­leigh Gard­ner (Aus­tralia), 5/12 against New Zealand in 2023, and Renu­ka Singh (In­dia), 5/15 against Eng­land in 2023.

The West In­dies’ per­for­mance has de­clined since win­ning the 2016 World Cup, es­pe­cial­ly against Aus­tralia, Eng­land, In­dia, New Zealand, and South Africa. De­an­dra Dot­tin’s re­turn will re­unite the ‘big three’—Matthews, Tay­lor, and Dot­tin. How­ev­er, to play con­sis­tent­ly over six match­es will re­quire the likes of Chinelle Hen­ry, She­maine Camp­belle, Chedean Na­tion, and Kar­ish­ma Ramharack to put their hands up and be count­ed.

It is un­fair to ask that Matthews con­sis­tent­ly car­ry the weight of the team’s bat­ting, bowl­ing, and field­ing while al­so be­ing cap­tain. How­ev­er, crick­et is a game of glo­ri­ous un­cer­tain­ties, and maybe Matthews and com­pa­ny have a few tricks up their sleeves to win their sec­ond ti­tle and cap­ture the US$2.34 mil­lion first prize.