The 1988 Shell Bicentennial Women's World Cup was an international

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

tournament played in Australia from 29 November to 18 December 1988. Hosted by Australia for the first time, as part of the

Bicentenary __NOTOC__ A bicentennial or bicentenary is the two-hundredth anniversary of a part, or the celebrations thereof. It may refer to: Europe *French Revolution bicentennial, commemorating the 200th anniversary of 14 July 1789 uprising, celebrated ...

celebrations, it was the fourth edition of the

Women's Cricket World Cup The ICC Women's Cricket World Cup is the sport's oldest world championship, with the first tournament held in England in 1973. Matches are played as One Day Internationals (ODIs) over 50 overs per team, while there is also another champion ...

, and came six years after the preceding 1982 World Cup in New Zealand. The tournament was organised by the

International Women's Cricket Council The International Women's Cricket Council was formed in February 1958 by the women's cricket associations of Australia, England, the Netherlands, New Zealand and South Africa to organise international matches between the countries. In 2005 it was ...

(IWCC), with matches played over 60 overs.

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

won the tournament for a third consecutive time, defeating

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

the final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

by eight wickets.

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

defeated

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

in the third-place playoff, while the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, the only other team at the tournament, placed fifth and last after failing to win a single match. Both Ireland and the Netherlands were making their tournament debuts.

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

had been invited to compete, as they had at the previous two tournaments, but were forced to withdraw after failing to secure enough money from sponsors. Two Australians, Lindsay Reeler and

Lyn Fullston Lynette Ann Fullston (3 March 1956 – 1 June 2008) was an Australian cricketer and netballer. In cricket, she played as a slow left-arm orthodox bowler and left-handed batter. She appeared in 12 Test matches and 41 One Day Internationals for ...

, led the tournament in runs and wickets, respectively. The player of the series was English all-rounder

Carole Hodges Carole Ann Hodges (married name Carole Cornthwaite; born 1 September 1959) is an English former cricketer who played as a right-handed batter and right-arm off break bowler. She appeared in 18 Test matches and 47 One Day Internationals for En ...

, who placed third for runs scored and second for wickets taken. She received a

Waterford Crystal Waterford Crystal is a manufacturer of lead glass or "crystal", especially in cut glass, named after the city of Waterford, Ireland. In January 2009, the main Waterford Crystal manufacturing base on the edge of Waterford was closed due to the i ...

trophy valued at A$4,000, donated by an Irish firm, R&A Bailey.

Squads

* Note: New Zealand's Nancy Williams dislocated her shoulder in one of the opening match, and was replaced by

Catherine Campbell Catherine Anne Campbell (born 20 July 1963) is a New Zealand former cricketer who played as a right-arm off break bowler. She appeared in 9 Test matches and 85 One Day Internationals for New Zealand between 1988 and 2000. She stood in as capta ...

in the squad.

Venues

Warm-up matches

At least five warm-up matches were played against Australian state and invitational teams, which were interspersed throughout the tournament. ---- ---- ---- ----

Group stage

Points table

* Note:

run rate In cricket, the run rate (RR), or runs per over (RPO), is the average number of runs a batting side scores per over. It includes all runs made by the batting side in the innings to that point of the game, both the runs scored by the batsmen and ...

was to be used as a tiebreaker in the case of teams finishing on an equal number of points, rather than

net run rate Net run rate (NRR) is a statistical method used in analysing teamwork and/or performance in cricket. It is the most commonly used method of ranking teams with equal points in limited overs league competitions, similar to goal difference in foo ...

(as is now common).

Matches

1st Match

----

2nd Match

----

3rd Match

----

4th Match

----

5th Match

----

6th Match

----

7th Match

----

8th Match

----

9th Match

----

10th Match

----

11th Match

----

12th Match

----

13th Match

----

14th Match

----

15th Match

----

16th Match

----

17th Match

----

18th Match

----

19th Match

----

20th Match

Finals

Third place play-off

Final

The final, held at the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadiu ...

, was broadcast live on radio and on

ABC Television ABC Television most commonly refers to: *ABC Television Network of the American Broadcasting Company, United States, or *ABC Television (Australian TV network), a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia ABC Television or ABC ...

. It was attended by around 3,000 people, although the ground had a capacity at the time of over 90,000.

Janette Brittin Janette Ann Brittin (4 July 1959 – 11 September 2017) was an English cricketer who played as a right-handed batter and right-arm off break bowler. She appeared in 27 Tests and 63 ODIs for England between 1979 and 1998. She played domestic ...

, who played for England in the match, later described the venue as having "wall-to-wall seating with no one sitting in them", making it "a very large and a very lonely place".Nishi Narayanan (8 March 2009)
"Like watching paint dry"
– ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 29 August 2015. No women's cricket had been played there since 1949.

Statistics

Most runs

The top five runscorers are included in this table, ranked by runs scored and then by

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

. Source
CricketArchive

Most wickets

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

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

. Source
CricketArchive

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:World Cup 1988 1988 in women's cricket

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

1988 in Australian cricket World Cup 1988 November 1988 sports events in Australia December 1988 sports events in Australia Australian bicentennial commemorations