ACS Women's International Cricket Year Book 2026

6 AFGHANISTAN Afghanistan women’s team was first formed in 2010 and were scheduled to take part in the Asian Cricket Council Women’s Twenty20 Championship in Kuwait in February 2011 but the team were forced to withdraw from the tournament before travelling due to elements in Afghanistan opposing women’s participation in sport. The team did play in a tournament in Tajikistan in 2012 before disbanding in 2014. As ICC rules state that Full Member countries have to have a women’s team the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) held trials in October 2020 and were set to award central contracts to 25 players, but the return to power of the Taliban in August 2021 and their insistence that women should not play sport meant that the team never played. The ICC ruling in April 2021 awarding permanent Test and ODI status to all Full Member women’s teams would have meant any matches from then would have been ranked. In January 2025 the Afghan refugees who were to have been contracted to the ACB formed a team in Australia and played an exhibition match (and hence unranked) against Cricket Without Borders XI. AUSTRALIA The Australian Women’s Cricket Council was formed in 1931 (individual state organisations having gradually been formed in the eight years prior), and the first Australian Women’s Cricket Championship in March 1931 was contested by New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. The Championships were held annually over a week in one location by rotation. The first three seasons were declaration cricket, two innings per side, but only one-day matches so not ranked as first-class. The February 1934 tournament was the first one to feature two-day matches. The other states gradually joined. The tournament was not played due to the War between 1941/42 and 1945/46, although a friendly in the latter season has been ranked. The 1976/77 tournament was played as 60 overs limited overs one-day (so ranked List A) in preparation for the World Cup later that year, and that format was repeated in 1981/82 and 1987/88. From 1990/91 to 1994/95 the tournament was a mixture of limited overs and two-day matches. 1995/96 was the last tournament (all 50 overs) played at one location; as from 1996/97 the Women’s National Cricket League (all 50 overs) played all over the country. The first domestic inter-state Twenty20 competition was played in 2007/08 and continued until 2014/15, after which the Women’s Big Bash with names aligned to the men’s Big Bash teams started. In 2024/25 an additional T20 was played for the Spring Challenge to compensate for the shortened (due to the T20 World Cup) Big Bash, and both tournaments remained the same length in 2025/26. BANGLADESH Bangladesh gained international status by finishing fifth in the November 2011 ICC World Cup Qualifier, replacing Netherlands, so domestic tournaments before 2011/12 are not ranked. In 2006/07 a mixture of clubs and geographical divisions took part in the first Women’s National Cricket League (although no scores are available) but subsequent tournaments have just featured the Divisions. The tournament is normally 50 overs but in 2010/11, 2015, 2017/18 and 2022/23 it was played as T20 because of impending T20 World Cups. In 2021/22 a four team Zonal tournament was played. The 2018/19 tournament was referred to in the press as the 10th National Cricket League and the 2022/23 as the 12th. It is believed the 11th must be the Zonal tournament of 2021/22, which may have replaced a normal style tournament due to Covid. No scores are available for the 2011/12 (except the final, and no fixtures are even known as the number of competing teams is not certain), nor for 2015, 2017/18 (just the first seven matches) and 2018/19 tournaments.