2000 Women’s Cricket World Cup – A Summary
After 2 unsuccessful ventures for the Kiwis despite making it to the final, this was the perfect opportunity for them as the world cup was back to New Zealand after 1982. The 2000 edition, just like any other edition was special for its reasons. To begin with, 50-over matches were played between 8 participants, resulting in 31 encounters. It was the beginning of a new decade for women’s cricket, and to kick-start it with a world cup in England? Very few things would be as comprehensive as this.
This edition was sponsored by CricInfo, thus the name ‘2000 CricInfo Women’s Cricket World Cup’. CricInfo is a website with many substitutes now but was known for having a unique idea back in the day-publishing ball-by-ball text commentary alongside streaming audio and video coverage. This was the first time women’s cricket had such exposure and was unquestionably a fabulous start, luring thousands of new spectators and performers.
Moving on, this tournament was played in round-robin and knockout format just like most of its previous versions. The top 4 teams – Australia, New Zealand, India, and South Africa made it to the knock-outs in which the Aussies upset the South Africans and the Kiwis handed India another failure at the world cup.
The final was played 2 days before Christmas on 23rd December 2000 with 4-time champions Australia taking on New Zealand that was yet to win a cup. New Zealand scored just 184 without completing their innings, courtesy of Australian bowlers, especially the legendary quick Cathryn Fitzpatrick, more commonly known as Fitzy who picked up 3 on the big day. Giving her company, her fabulous teammate Belinda Clark scored a scintillating 91 (102) but unfortunately, both of these excellent performances weren’t enough as the Kiwis held on to their nerves and won by a narrow margin of just 4 runs.
Lastly, despite Australia’s loss in the final, it was still an exceptional tournament for them as they once again swept through all the major titles with Karen Rolton as the highest run-scorer, Charmaine Mason as highest wicket-taker, and Lisa Keightley who performed brilliantly in both departments to be declared the player of the tournament.
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