ACS Women's International Cricket Year Book 2026

10 PAKISTAN Shaiza Khan formed the Pakistan Women’s Cricket Control Association (PWCCA) in Karachi in September 1996 and organised a Pakistan team which gained recognition by IWCC playing ODIs in New Zealand in January 1997 and a Test in Sri Lanka in April 1998. Their first games in Pakistan were an ODI series against Netherlands in April 2001. There were two rival organisations in Lahore who also claimed to be the Pakistan team, and court cases resulted but the IWCC recognition for PWCCA was crucial. The PWCCA had organised no proper domestic tournaments so the first ranked domestic tournament was the List ANational women’s championship run by the Pakistan Cricket Board in March 2005, and there have been annual tournaments ever since. As in men’s cricket there have been tournaments with sides from banks and other institutions. In the period between 2018 and 2023 the competing teams became composite PCB teams before some reversion to the regions in 2024. The first domestic Twenty20 tournament was held in July 2008 and has been played regularly ever since. SOUTH AFRICA The first inter-provincial tournament (for white cricketers only) was held in Johannesburg in April 1952 for the Simon Trophy. The South Africa and Rhodesia Women’s Cricket Association was formed after the initial week. The tournament was played annually in one location over a week, normally in two sections. The initial seasons were two innings per side but one-day matches so cannot be ranked first-class, thus the first matches to be ranked were in 1954/55 when just the A section played two-day matches. The tournament was not played in 1960/61 because of the England tour, and from that time there was just one section as there was increasing difficulty in raising teams to participate with some provinces having to combine and the stronger ones fielding a B side. The 1961/62 and 1962/63 tournaments reverted to one-day games, so not first-class. In 1965/66 the Alma club represented Western Province and the Nomads were a combination side of players not in the other provincial sides, but all the matches were two-day and so ranked first-class. From 1966/67 the cricket week continued until the mid 1980s, gradually in decline, but with composite sides playing one-day matches with the Simon Trophy only awarded to the winners of matches between the provincial sides, although in some seasons there were no such games at all. The format of the Simon Trophy matches varied, some first-class, some List A and some one-day declaration so unranked. The first domestic List A games were the first three days of the 1972/73 competition, the remainder of that season being one-day declaration games so not ranked. The Unicorns (a collection of English players) made five tours between 1974/75 and 1985/86, and in two of them took part in the Cricket Week. Details are more sparse as the seasons move forward. The last season Cricket Week took place for certain was 1986/87, although there are advance references to a week in 1987/88, but it is not known if this actually took place. After unity, in 1995/96 South African Women’s Cricket Association was revived and the annual tournaments took place in one location on a limited overs basis. In September 2005 SAWCA was dissolved and incorporated into Cricket South Africa. In 2003/04 the competition became a season-long league rather than being played at one location over a week. The first domestic Twenty20 competition was the Super 4s in July 2008, with the first regular provincial Twenty20 in 2012/13 continuing annually ever since. Both List A and Twenty20 competitions are played over two divisions with promotion and relegation. Many matches up to the early 2000s have only summary scores available, or in some cases no scores at all, or even exact information on fixtures scheduled.