An important step forward in the worldwide growth of women’s cricket has been taken with the official confirmation by the International Cricket Council (ICC) that ten teams would compete in the 2029 Women’s ODI World Cup. The choice builds on the tournament’s increasing success and popularity, as seen by the record-breaking attendance and broad participation of the 2025 edition.
On International Women’s Day in 2021, the International Cricket Council first declared its plan to grow the women’s game and laid forth a plan to give developing countries greater competition possibilities. Only eight nations have participated in the Women’s ODI World Cup main draw since 2000. Nonetheless, the new format will provide emerging cricket nations more room by enabling two more teams to participate on the global stage.
Additionally, there will be a significant rise in the number of matches in the 2029 tournament, from 31 in the previous edition to 48. The Women’s T20 World Cup, which will be hosted next year, will now feature 12 teams instead of the 10 who participated in the previous tournament, which was held in the United Arab Emirates, according to an announcement made by the International Cricket Council.
“The event broke the record for tournament attendance for any women’s cricket event, with about 300,000 spectators in the stadiums. With around 500 million viewers in India, the event also saw an increase in viewership and the setting of new records for on-screen audiences worldwide, according to an ICC announcement cited by ESPNcricinfo.
The appointment of Ashley De Silva, Mithali Raj, Amol Muzumdar, Ben Sawyer, Charlotte Edwards, and Sala Stella Siale-Vaea as new members of the ICC Women’s Cricket Committee was also approved by the ICC Board.
ICC starts bidding on a cricket game for mobile devices.
Additionally, the ICC said that it will start a bidding process for its official cricket game on mobile devices. The World Cricketers’ Association (WCA) and the governing body have been at odds over the project for a long time, and the new tender procedure attempts to give the project’s development and administration more structure and transparency.
“The ICC Board confirmed its approval to issue an Invitation to Tender (ITT) for Video Gaming Rights, opening the door for leading global partners to collaborate with the ICC in delivering world-class, digital fan experiences,” the statement read.
The Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rights of athletes have been at the heart of the conflict between the ICC and the WCA. The WCA has maintained that since the organization already owns NIL rights for almost 600 players and has entered the gaming industry, any attempt by the ICC to create a mobile cricket game with actual players would be a violation of present agreements.
The ICC decided earlier this year that, instead of going through the WCA, individual member boards would be in charge of negotiating NIL rights with its players directly. For the mobile cricket game, the ICC opened the Expression of Interest (EOI) procedure in June. However, because member boards are still negotiating with their players to finalize NIL agreements, progress has been slow.
Although preliminary estimates indicate that at least half of the Full Member nations have established preliminary understandings, it is still unknown how many boards have been successful in obtaining the required permissions.
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