Google Doodle today celebrated the beginning of ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2022 which began today at Bay Oval Stadium in New Zealand. The 12th edition of the Women's Cricket World Cup began at 6:30 am IST on Friday. The doodle showcases six female cricketers playing the game in the presence of audiences in the background.
When you visit the Google homepage and click on the doodle representing the Women's Cricket World Cup, you will find cricket balls moving on your screen from the left to the right and to play this again, you can click on the confetti popper at the bottom of the page.
Google doodle today commemorated the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2022, the tournament as it begins following delays as the world grappled with Covid-19 pandemic. With eight teams competing against each other, the tournament was originally scheduled for early 2021. Finally, in March this year after coronavirus-related travel restrictions stabilised that it became possible to begin the game.
Meanwhile, the six-time champion Australia again is favored to win the Women’s Cricket World Cup which begins Friday at a watershed moment in the sport, amid clamor for pay equity and rising global exposure for the women’s game. A comprehensive win in the recent Ashes series shows Australia is in peak form heading into its opening match of the tournament against defending champion England on Saturday.
Host New Zealand beat Australia in a warm-up match and will meet the West Indies in the first match of the tournament Friday with limited fan support at Bay Oval in Tauranga. New Zealand is battling an Covid-19 omicron outbreak with more than 20,000 cases a day and crowds will be restricted to 10% of venue capacity.
The tournament is an eight-team round-robin involving Australia, England, New Zealand, Pakistan, West Indies, South Africa, India and Bangladesh. The 50-over matches will be played at six venues which will require considerable internal travel.
Covid-19 will loom as a constant threat over the tournament but extraordinary contingency plans have been put in place to allow matches to go ahead with as little disruption as possible.
Australia won the women's Twenty20 World Cup on home soil in March 2020, beating India in the final in front of more than 86,000 people at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the last major event staged before the global shutdown for the pandemic.
(With inputs from agencies)
