The ICC Women's Championship (IWC) is 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 st ...

tournament used to determine qualification for 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 ...

. The first two tournaments were contested between the top eight teams of the

ICC Women's Rankings The International Cricket Council Player Rankings is a widely followed system of rankings for international cricketers based on their recent performances. The current sponsor is MRF Tyres who signed a 4-year deal with the ICC that will last until ...

. The first edition was the 2014–16 ICC Women's Championship, which started in April 2014 and was concluded in November 2016.

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

were the winners of the inaugural tournament. The second edition of the tournament started in October 2017, with the top four teams automatically qualifying for the

2021 Women's Cricket World Cup The 2022 ICC Women's Cricket World Cup was the twelfth edition of the Women's Cricket World Cup, which was held in New Zealand in March and April 2022. It was originally scheduled for 6 February to 7 March 2021 but was postponed by one year due ...

. In September 2018, the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the world governing body of cricket. Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its members are 108 national associations, with 12 Full Members and 96 Associate Members. Founded in 1909 as the '' ...

(ICC) announced that they were exploring the option to expand the IWC to all ten teams, therefore including

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mo ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

in future editions of the competition. In August 2021, the ICC confirmed that the three qualifiers from the 2021 Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier tournament and the next two best placed teams would qualify for the next IWC cycle. However, in November 2021, the qualifier tournament was called off midway through, due to the discovery of a new variant of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quick ...

in Southern Africa. Therefore, Bangladesh and Ireland joined the IWC for the 2022–25 cycle, based on their ODI rankings.

Tournament history

Season

Team

References

{{2017–20 ICC Women's Championship ICC Women's Championship Recurring sporting events established in 2014 International Cricket Council events Women's One Day International cricket competitions