ICC Women's World Cup 2009 - News

ICC President David Morgan hails event as 'a fantastic success'

Tuesday, March 24, 2009 12:38:50 AM

ICC President David Morgan has paid tribute to Australia for hosting of a fantastic ICC Women’s World Cup 2009, which was the first event to be held under the auspices of the ICC since its integration with the International Women’s Cricket Council (IWCC) in 2005. 

He added that the success of the tournament, as well as the two forthcoming ICC World Twenty20 events where women’s event will be staged alongside the men’s event, would inspire more girls to take up the sport. 

He said the quality of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2009 would motivate teams to come to England and the West Indies in June 2009 and April 2010 better prepared. 

Speaking shortly after England held its nerve to beat New Zealand by four wickets at the North Sydney Oval on Sunday, Mr Morgan said: “It has been a high-quality event as it was the first to be organised by the ICC. It has been a fantastic success. 

“I think the cricketers have appreciated the level of organisation and expertise that has been brought to the event. I am truly grateful to the people in Cricket Australia, Cricket New South Wales and the ICC for the way in which they put the whole thing together. It has been really very impressive.” 

Mr Morgan also complimented the volunteers for their efforts in making this an event a memorable one. 

“The contribution of the volunteers has been really excellent. I first saw volunteers in action at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 in South Africa. Seeing them at this event, which was a smaller event, I would say they have played an even bigger part. It has been really very important and their contribution was outstanding. 

“They worked tirelessly and today if we can look back at the success of this tournament it is also because of the devotion and commitments of the volunteers.” 

The tournament which was spread over 16 days in which 25 matches produced outstanding individual and team performances with New Zealand batter Suzie Bates belting 19 fours and six sixes in a 105-ball 168, England’s player of the tournament Claire Taylor scoring an impressive 101 on way to finish as the leading run-getter with 324 runs, Haidee Tiffen hitting an attractive century, England spinner Laura Marsh claiming 5-15 on way to her 16 wickets, Karen Rolton excellent innings of 96, Mthali Rajs’ consistency with the bat, New Zealand’s exciting victory Australia, India’s twin wins over Australia, Australia’s convincing victory over eventual champion England and last, but not least, New Zealand’s late fight back against England in the final. 

Mr Morgan thanked the players for their superb performances and hoped the exciting women’s cricket calendar would motivate more players. “We should not forget the cricketers who gave their heart and soul for their teams and played cricket in accordance with its rich traditions. 

“After watching over the past few days, I was pleased to see the improvement in standard. It was a pleasure to watch women’s cricket which was skilful, demanding and very good entertainment. 

“It is my certain view that the teams which have not done so well this time will be motivated by the quality of this event and would try to do better in the immediate future. 

“With two ICC World Twenty20 events coming up in relatively short period where a women’s event will be staged alongside the men’s event, this is very promising for women’s cricket and more girls will be interested and motivated by this calendar.” 

Mr Morgan also thanked the contribution of ICC’s commercial and broadcast partners “The game owes a huge vote of thanks to our commercial partners, Global Partners Reliance Communications Limited, PepsiCo and LG Electronics, our Official Partners Emirates Airlines, Reebok and Yahoo and Local Partners for this event, Events New South Wales and the Daily Telegraph, as well as Broadcast Partner ESPN STAR Sports, which provided coverage of a women’s event that was unprecedented in scale and quality,” he said. 

ESPN STAR Sports covered all the seven matches from the North Sydney Oval, including three from the first stage, three from Super Six stage and the final, and ensured that a global audience of millions got a chance to see the best of the best in women’s cricket. 

ESPN STAR Sports had also lined up an experienced combination of commentators for the tournament that included former Gloucestershire and Glamorgan left-arm fast bowler Alan Wilkins, former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram, former New Zealand fast bowler Danny Morrison, former Australia women’s captain and lead run-scorer in women’s cricket Belinda Clark, former New Zealand women’s captain and her country’s most successful batter to date Deborah Hockley and former Australia batter Melanie Jones. 

“I met with ESS’s managing director Manu Sawhney a few days ago and I complimented him on the quality of coverage which has been of the highest standard. 

“This tournament has been an excellent advertisement for all that is great about our sport and we look forward to working with these partners in the years to come,” added Mr Morgan. 

The next ICC events to be covered by ESS will be the ICC World Twenty20 2009 in England which is due to take place from 5 to 22 March, the ICC Champions Trophy 2009 which will be staged in South Africa from 24 September to 5 October and the ICC World Twenty20 2010 in the West Indies from 30 April to 16 May. 

To download free images from selected matches, users need to go to http://iccfiles.sportcentric.org/, click ICC WWC 09 folder, go to the relevant match folder and click on the required image to download. 

Images are for editorial use only and are copyright of the ICC. 

The event logo and more details on the ICC Women’s World Cup 2009 can be found at: iccevents.yahoo.com