Captains exude confidence going into ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025

All eight skippers at the 13th edition of the tournament attended a Captains’ Day event that was held simultaneously in Bengaluru and Colombo

Rakesh Thapliyal

New Delhi:The skippers of all teams participating in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 spoke at a special Captains’ Day event which was held simultaneously in Bengaluru and Colombo, expressing their eagerness and confidence with just four days to go before the tournament starts.

India play Sri Lanka in the opening match in Guwahati on 30 September while Australia start their defence of the title a day later against New Zealand in Indore. Visakhapatnam, Navi Mumbai and Colombo are the other cities where the round-robin tournament will be played.

A unique format saw them all together on one forum even though they were in different countries. Alyssa Healy (Australia), Nat Sciver-Brunt (England), Sophie Devine (New Zealand), and Harmanpreet Kaur (India) attended the event in Bengaluru while Nigar Sultana (Bangladesh), Fatima Sana (Pakistan), Laura Wolvaardt (South Africa), and Chamari Athapaththu (Sri Lanka) were part of the event in Colombo.

Fans got a peek into the minds of the top players as they aired their thoughts about the World Cup and the growth of the women’s game in the panel discussions held in Bengaluru and Colombo as a combined event head of the much-awaited tournament.

Harmanpreet Kaur. 

Harmanpreet Kaur: “Representing your country is always a special moment for any player. But leading your country in an ODI World Cup is even more special for me. Every team in this World Cup has an equal chance to win, which shows how much we have raised the standard of women’s cricket. We’ve also started seeing packed stadiums, which is something we really enjoy because we’ve never seen that before. A home World Cup is always special, and there are a lot of expectations from us. We’re going to see a lot of fans in the stadium cheering for us, and I’m sure we’ll give our best.”

Chamari Athapaththu: “We are playing on our home soil, and I know many Sri Lankans will be there to support us. We need that energy and encouragement, just like we experienced during the Asia Cup, where there were many spectators. I hope to see the same vibrant atmosphere in the stadiums during our World Cup matches. We want to enjoy the moment, taking it one game at a time. We do not want to put too much pressure on ourselves but rather play our natural game freely. That is our intention.”

Alyssa Healy: “Defending a title is not easy. I think every team is here to win the World Cup. We know what we need to do to try and achieve that. You have to beat every single side in the world to lift that trophy, which is really exciting. We’re really looking forward to that challenge. I believe this is going to be the toughest World Cup we’ve ever been a part of. Australia has a rich history in this format and in World Cups, but I think every single team is going to be tough to beat.”

Nat Sciver-Brunt: “The number of people who come to games in India, support cricket and truly love watching it brings a different energy, another level to the game that we hadn’t experienced before. So, I think the matches here in India are going to be greatly watched, and that’s really exciting as a player. We’ve got some highly skilled and talented young players who haven’t experienced a World Cup before. Sometimes, when you haven’t experienced it, you don’t know what to expect, so those expectations from before aren’t there. So, I think the youth in our side can balance well with the experience. I believe the quality of cricket in this tournament is going to be really exciting.”

Sophie Devine: “It’s certainly a nice feeling to have that confidence and the belief that we can win world events. I think for us, that’s really important to know. It’s a different format. Everyone starts back on zero. So, for us again, like both Alyssa [Healy] and Nat [Sciver-Brunt] said, we’re here to win this trophy, and you’ve got to beat everyone in this competition. We’ve got to be at our best. I think it’s the opportunities that are provided [for women’s cricket]; it’s been pretty crazy to think at the start of my career. I think the next step is to make sure that it is a truly global game and that all boards across the world are provided with equal opportunity to be able to play more cricket.”

Fatima Sana: “We have a significant advantage playing here [in Colombo] and executing our skills because we know we will be playing all our matches at the same venue and under the same conditions. This familiarity will work in our favor. Yes, definitely, our main goal is to finish in the top four. I believe the conditions in Sri Lanka are similar to those in Pakistan, so we are familiar with the exact conditions.”

Nigar Sultana: “This is our second ODI World Cup and earlier we were inexperienced and unfamiliar with winning on a big stage. However, since then, we have played a lot of cricket both at home and abroad, and now we know how to win matches in tournament settings. We are eagerly looking forward to this World Cup. This is a great opportunity for all of us. We are aware of our responsibility to promote cricket back home, where interest in women’s cricket is growing. We believe it is time to give back to our supporters through our performances.”

Laura Wolvaardt: “I think in a tournament like this, every team is a big team. I think there’s no sort of single team or two that are set up to win it. In these conditions, it really brings a lot of the subcontinent teams into the game, so I think our strategy for the tournament will really just be to take it one game at a time and not think about big names.”

More about the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025

· This is an eight-team tournament being played from 30 Sept to 2 Nov across five venues – Guwahati, Indore, Navi Mumbai, Visakhapatnam and Colombo

· This is the first women’s ICC global event on the sub-continent since India hosted the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in 2016 along with the Men’s T20 World Cup

· The ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup returns to the sub-continent after 2013, when India hosted the tournament

· This World Cup carries a record total prize money of 13.88 million US Dollars, more than that of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, with the winner’s purse worth 4.48 million dollars

· This tournament is being run by an all-female panel of match officials.