Sophie Molineux and Nat Sciver-Brunt believe the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 marks the next chapter in the exponential growth of women’s cricket.
The captains from Sunday’s final at Lord’s, where Australia comfortably saw off England to claim their seventh T20 title, both noted the significance of the showpiece – as well as the tournament as a whole.
Almost 29,000 fans piled into the Home of Cricket on Sunday afternoon, a record for a women’s cricket match in England.
Rita Ora and Clean Bandit provided musical entertainment, but the day was all about the cricket and the women participating in it.
It may not have been the most thrilling spectacle on the field, with Australia dominant seven-wicket winners, but the occasion will live long in the memory.
“I feel like today was a moment in time for cricket, not just women’s cricket, but for cricket,” Australia captain Molineux, who finished joint-second in the wicket-taking charts and was named in the ICC Team of the Tournament, said.
“To be here at Lord’s, the Home of Cricket, and there were 30,000 people here watching a high-quality T20 final.
“The crowds have been incredible throughout the whole tournament, I feel like there’s been a record broken in every single game in the last week or so.
“That’s a true testament to everyone here, the people that have organised the tournament, the fans who have come out. They’ve even come out to neutral games where England haven’t been playing.
“But today was a moment in time, it was really special and to sing the national anthem in front of a packed Lord’s ground, we’ll never forget that.”
The highest attendance for a group game fixture was beaten three times in the early part of the tournament.
First, India and Pakistan lured nearly 19,000 to Edgbaston on the competition’s second day, before England and New Zealand’s clash at The Oval attracted 21,018 fans.
But that record lasted less than 24 hours, as 27,163 flooded into Lord’s to watch Australia face India.
That two of the record-breaking games didn’t feature hosts England is evidence of how the country has embraced the event, and how globalised the women’s game has become.
Over 160,000 tickets have been sold across nearly a month of competition, a record in ICC women’s events and double the number who attended the 2017 Cricket World Cup also hosted in this country.
That proved a turning point in the women’s game for England.
Members of this year’s squad were inspired by seeing their heroes in action close up, Alice Capsey and Tilly Corteen-Coleman watching on from the stands aged 12 and nine respectively.
Sciver-Brunt, who made back-to-back half-centuries in the semi-final and final and was named in the ICC’s Team of the Tournament despite missing three games with a calf injury, hopes this tournament will have a similar effect on the next generation.
The England captain said: “I guess in England we wanted to leave a lasting legacy and inspire as many people as we could, to grow the game, to grow the amount of people who want to play the game or are interested in watching or just want to be involved in the game, and for that not to be a one-off, for that to leave leave a mark in the landscape of cricket for the future.
“I hope the fans are really inspired by what we’ve done, what every team has done, throughout this tournament.
“We know from 2017, there were people in the crowd who are now in the side, which is incredible, so I guess you never know who will be the next person to have watched this tournament, been inspired by what we’ve been able to do and become motivated to live their dreams.
“When you summarise a tournament through that lens, it just makes us extremely proud of what we’ve been able to do, and I think that has been the really special part about this tournament.”
Sciver-Brunt led her side out with her baby son Theo in her arms, and has been encouraged by the quality of cricket on show throughout the tournament.
It was the biggest ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in history, expanded from 10 to 12 teams, with plans for a 16-team tournament in 2030.
But the lower-ranked sides didn’t look out of place.
Ireland, ranked ninth, beat the West Indies and pushed the likes of New Zealand and England all the way, while 11th-ranked Scotland picked up their first World Cup win.
Sciver-Brunt believes the next step for the women’s game involves the ICC’s lower-ranked full member and associate nations making another jump to bridge the gap to the likes of Australia and England.
“Women’s cricket, I think we’ve seen from this tournament, has got really high standards,” England’s second-highest all-time T20I run-scorer said.
“The teams who might not necessarily have been the ones who made it to the semi-final, they’ve done a lot of growing too, which I think is really exciting.
“Teams like Ireland and Scotland are pushing the bigger teams to put them under pressure.
“I think that can only be down to the domestic setup that we’ve got here in England, that has so many of those players who play in the teams.
“So, I guess encouraging other nations to really back their players in making things underneath the international routine a really positive experience.”
Featured image credit: Callum Humphrey
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