AdministratorInternational Women's Cricket Council
Cricket formatWomen's One Day International (50-over)
Tournament formatRound-robin
HostIndia
ChampionsAustralia (1st title)
Runners-upEngland
Participants4
Matches6
Most runsMargaret Jennings (127)
Most wicketsSharyn Hill (7)
The 1978 Women's Cricket World Cup was an international cricket tournament played in India from 1 to 13 January 1978. Hosted by India for the first time, it was the second edition of the Women's Cricket World Cup, after the inaugural 1973 World Cup in England.
1978 Women's Cricket World Cup is located in India
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.
Australia
England
India
New Zealand
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.
28 December 1977
England
v
East Zone
Result unknown Eden Gardens, Calcutta, West Bengal
28 December 1977
New Zealand
v
West Bengal WCA President's XI
Result unknown Calcutta Cricket and Football Club, Calcutta, West Bengal
28 December 1977
Australia
v
Indian Universities Women's Team
Result unknown Pune, Maharashtra (exact venue unknown)
30 December 1977
England
v
West Bengal WCA President's XI
Result unknown Calcutta Cricket and Football Club, Calcutta, West Bengal
2 January 1978
England
v
East Zone
Result unknown Eden Gardens, Calcutta, West Bengal
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).
Pos
Team
Pld
W
L
T
NR
Pts
RR
1
Australia
3
3
0
0
0
6
3.264
2
England
3
2
1
0
0
4
2.657
3
New Zealand
3
1
2
0
0
2
2.777
4
India
3
0
3
0
0
0
1.988
New Zealand vs Australia
Australia won the toss and elected to bat. , Peta Verco, Sharyn Hill (Aus), Cheryl Henshilwood, Edna Ryan, Pat Carrick, Sheree Harris, Vicki Burtt and Viv Sexton (NZ) all made their WODI debuts.
1 January Scorecard
Australia 177 (49.2 overs)
v
New Zealand111/8 (50 overs)
Wendy Hills 64 Barb Bevege 3/17 (9.2 overs)
Trish McKelvey 37 Sharyn Hill 3/16 (10 overs)
Australia won by 66 runs Keenan Stadium, Jamshedpur, Bihar (now Jharkhand) Umpires: KVK Rao (IND) and Sukha Bose (IND)
India vs England
England won the toss and elected to bowl. , Anjali Sharma, Diana Edulji, Fowzieh Khalili, Gargi Banerjee, Kalpan Paropkari, Lopamudra Bhattacharji, Nilima Jogalekar, Runa Basu, Sandhya Mazumdar, Sharmila Chakraborty, Shobha Pandit (Ind) and Catherine Mowat (Eng) all made their WODI debuts.
1 January Scorecard
India 63 (39.3 overs)
v
England65/1 (30.2 overs)
Diana Edulji 18 Margaret Wilks 2/6 (6 overs)
Lynne Thomas 43* Diana Edulji 1/18 (10 overs)
England won by 9 wickets Eden Gardens, Calcutta, West Bengal Umpires: Bhairab Ganguly (IND) and Sunit Ghosh (IND)
New Zealand vs India
India won the toss and elected to bat. , Shubhangi Kulkarni, Sudha Shah, Susan Itticheria, Ujwala Nikam (Ind) and Linda Lindsay (NZ) all made their WODI debuts.
5 January Scorecard
India 130/9 (50 overs)
v
New Zealand131/1 (44 overs)
Ujwala Nikam 31* Linda Lindsay 2/26 (10 overs) Pat Carrick 2/26 (9 overs)
Barb Bevege 67* Anjali Sharma 1/32 (10 overs)
India vs Australia
India won the toss and elected to bowl. , Rajeshwari Dholakia (Ind) made her WODI debut.
New Zealand vs England
England won the toss and elected to bowl. , Karen Hadlee (NZ) made her WODI debut.
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.
Australia won the toss and elected to bowl.
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. England's Megan Lear later recounted that the "most memorable part of tournament was playing in front of crowds of 40,000 plus".
The Indians were the first women's team to play in trousers; at the previous World Cup all teams had played in skirts.
Most runs
The top five runscorers are included in this table, ranked by runs scored and then by batting average.
Most wickets
The top five wicket takers are listed in this table, ranked by wickets taken and then by bowling average.
Squads
Australia
Margaret Jennings (c)
Elaine Bray
Marie Cornish
Valerie Farrell
Lorraine Hill
Sharyn Hill
Wendy Hills
Jan Lumsden
Julie Stockton
Raelee Thompson
Janette Tredrea
Sharon Tredrea
Peta Verco
England
Mary Pilling (c)
Jacqueline Court
Heather Dewdney
Rosalind Heggs
Shirley Hodges
Glynis Hullah
Megan Lear
Catherine Mowat
Lynne Thomas
Chris Watmough
Margaret Wilks
India
Diana Edulji (c)
Gargi Banerji
Runa Basu
Lopamudra Bhattacharji
Sharmila Chakraborty
Rajeshwari Dholakia
Susan Itticheria
Nilima Jogalekar
Fowzieh Khalili
Shubhangi Kulkarni
Sandhya Mazumdar
Ujwala Nikam
Shobha Pandit
Kalpan Paropkari
Sudha Shah
Anjali Sharma
New Zealand
Trish McKelvey (c)
Liz Allan
Eileen Badham
Barbara Bevege
Vicki Burtt
Pat Carrick
Sheree Harris
Cheryl Henshilwood
Linda Lindsay
Karen Marsh
Sue Rattray
Edna Ryan
Viv Sexton
Warm-up matches
28 December 1977
Warm-up matches
Englandv
Warm-up matches
Result unknown Eden Gardens, Calcutta, West Bengal
Warm-up matches
28 December 1977
Warm-up matches
New Zealandv
Warm-up matches
Result unknown Calcutta Cricket and Football Club, Calcutta, West Bengal
Warm-up matches
28 December 1977
Warm-up matches
Australiav
Warm-up matches
Result unknown Pune, Maharashtra (exact venue unknown)
Warm-up matches
30 December 1977
Warm-up matches
Englandv
Warm-up matches
Result unknown Calcutta Cricket and Football Club, Calcutta, West Bengal
Warm-up matches
2 January 1978
Warm-up matches
Englandv
Warm-up matches
Result unknown Eden Gardens, Calcutta, West Bengal
Pos
1
2
3
4
Team
Australia
England
New Zealand
India
Pld
3
3
3
3
W
3
2
1
0
L
0
1
2
3
T
0
0
0
0
NR
0
0
0
0
Pts
6
4
2
0
RR
3.264
2.657
2.777
1.988
New Zealand vs Australia
1 January Scorecard
New Zealand vs Australia
Australia 177 (49.2 overs)v
Wendy Hills 64 Barb Bevege 3/17 (9.2 overs)
New Zealand vs Australia
Australia won by 66 runs Keenan Stadium, Jamshedpur, Bihar (now Jharkhand) Umpires: KVK Rao (IND) and Sukha Bose (IND)
India vs England
1 January Scorecard
India vs England
India 63 (39.3 overs)v
Diana Edulji 18 Margaret Wilks 2/6 (6 overs)
India vs England
England won by 9 wickets Eden Gardens, Calcutta, West Bengal Umpires: Bhairab Ganguly (IND) and Sunit Ghosh (IND)
New Zealand vs India
5 January Scorecard
New Zealand vs India
India 130/9 (50 overs)v
Ujwala Nikam 31* Linda Lindsay 2/26 (10 overs) Pat Carrick 2/26 (9 overs)
New Zealand vs India
New Zealand won by 9 wickets Moin-ul-Haq Stadium, Patna, Bihar
Australia won by 71 runs Moin-ul-Haq Stadium, Patna, Bihar Umpires: KVK Rao (IND) and Sukha Bose (IND)
New Zealand vs England
8 January Scorecard
New Zealand vs England
New Zealand 157 (49.4 overs)v
Barb Bevege 57 Jacqueline Court 4/29 (10 overs)
New Zealand vs England
England won by 7 wickets Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (now Telangana)
England vs Australia
13 January Scorecard
England vs Australia
England 96/8 (50 overs)v
Shirley Hodges 26 Sharon Tredrea 4/25 (10 overs)
England vs Australia
Australia won by 8 wickets Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (now Telangana) Umpires: SA Swaminathan (IND) and V. K. Ramaswamy (IND)
