Nine Years Later

If you’ve ever been to an England women’s cricket game, or watched on TV, at the sight of the slightest drop of rain, the 2017 Women’s World Cup will either be mentioned or its highlights replayed.

That day, and tournament, is highlighted as a watershed moment, a reference point for many and a huge day for women’s cricket in England. Of course, it was.

A sunny July Sunday at a sold-out Lord’s perhaps gave a sense of déjà vu for those who had attended nine years ago. However, the landscape women’s cricket operates in is drastically different from the last time England hosted a Women’s World Cup.

So what has changed since 2017?

By midday, three and a half hours before the first ball, there were hundreds queuing up to enter the ground with the gates not opening for another hour. Ticket touts were dotted around the St John’s Wood area, and signage made it incredibly clear that a World Cup final was about to take place.

The sense of occasion about this World Cup was felt from the beginning with Waterloo Bridge in London being closed for the captains of the 12 competing nations to hold their own game of cricket, a few days out from the tournament starting.

The West End cast of Wicked! got proceedings underway at Edgbaston with an evidently big pyrotechnic budget. 14,865 were there to witness England’s opening game, with attendances strong throughout the group stages.

The tournament travelled to England’s biggest grounds including the Oval, Old Trafford, Headingley and Edgbaston. Ticket sales were high and crowds were record-breaking, even for matches not involving England.  

This competition slightly nudged itself into the mainstream. Cricket media were asked to submit ratings of England players past and present in order to create a pack of England Top Trumps, the popular card game. The Archers featured the opening game as part of a storyline on their show. An episode of Bargain Hunt featured BBC commentators Ali Mitchell and Melissa Story as competitors which aired during the tournament. Members of the England team appeared on beloved children’s TV show Blue Peter and the Bullring Bull in Birmingham donned a cricket helmet on the eve of the tournament. Huge games of cricket Guess Who? were available to play in the host cities too. In 2017, you could have easily had no idea the tournament was happening. You'd have struggled a bit more in 2026.

Looking at the cricket itself, a lot has changed too.

In 2017, England coach Mark Robinson brought the team to Lord’s just to look around to try and calm additional nerves that playing there may have caused. A handful of the 2017 squad had played at Lord’s in ODIs before, but it had been at least four years since the last match, where they hosted Australia in 2013.

Lord’s is now familiar turf for the team, with the opportunities to play at the Home of Cricket in international, regional and Hundred cricket.

Similarly, full professionalism at a domestic level has been introduced in the intervening years. England’s youngest member of the squad, Tilly Corteen-Coleman, was just nine years old in 2017. She was able to finish school and sign a professional contract with Surrey, a paid career at county level existing since she was 12 years old.

England entered the tournament with probably the most eyes they’ve ever had on them. Some were there to cheer; some were there to see if things had changed for this heavily scrutinised team. There was the additional layer of pressure with the success of the Lionesses and the Red Roses winning the 2022 Euros and 2025 World Cup respectively, on home soil. Of course, it became a narrative that the cricket team would replicate this, one mostly driven by those without the understanding of where this side were at (and how good Australia are).

Thousands of England fans remained in the stands, clapping the team as they made their way around the ground after Australia sailed to a seven wicket win in the final. 28,887 piled in for the final with tickets sold out months in advance.

While England may not have won another World Cup on home soil, women’s cricket in England may have started to slightly poke out of its insular bubble. What’s crucial now is signposting spectators on. Will World Cup ticket holders be directed towards the T20 Blast Finals Day taking place on the 17^th July? Will fans be encouraged to attend the Hundred or County Cricket? What about the Test match taking place at Lord’s next week? This was the bridge that was desperately missing in 2017.