Women's World Cup: ICC's Scheduling Mess Has Turned Step Forward Into Damp Squib

The 2025 Women's World Cup was set to break new ground, but a string of rain-hit matches, compounded by poor scheduling, have taken the focus off cricket.

It’s unusual for a World Cup points table to have too much activity on the no-result column. So far, the 2025 Women’s World Cup has been an exception: the tally stands at six ahead of the semi-finals, with every team barring England having had at least one washout. Sri Lanka and Pakistan, placed fifth and eighth respectively, were involved in the most: three washouts each.

Colombo, Sri Lanka’s representative as the co-host, was the worst hit: one abandoned match without a ball bowled, four no results.

And these are just the ones that were called off. Two more games in Colombo were shortened. It started with the World Cup opener in Guwahati itself, reduced to 47 overs a side, and continued until the last game of the league stage, India v Bangladesh, washed out after the duration was twice revised.

Also read: Updated points table after final league game of Women's World Cup

Now, rain isn’t a new nemesis to cricket, and unseasonal showers can impinge on any contingencies. Navi Mumbai, the stage for the second semi-final and final, is expected to have a wet week through those games. The Indian Meteorological Department has issued a Yellow Alert until October 30 for the entire state of Maharashtra. Unless the forecast gets better, it’s likely one or both games could be affected by rain. If so, there are reserve days.

It’s to be noted that Navi Mumbai wasn’t among the original venues. When Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy Stadium was barred from hosting games after June’s stampede, a late change was made to the schedule. The change was announced on August 22 for a competition beginning on September 30. Having drawn in spectators for women’s international games and during the Women's Premier League, the venue was picked to ensure that the crowds would pour in for the business end of the tournament.

And the signs have been positive: in their first India fixture, the crowd at the DY Patil Stadium was counted at 25,166, the most for a league match of any Women’s World Cup ever. Three days later, it was broken by the India-Bangladesh game (25,965). A record crowd turned up, but the match had to be called off after 35.4 overs across two innings.

While it was unlikely to predict and plan for the unseasonal rains of Navi Mumbai, the case is different for Colombo.

Heavy rains: Not just an unfortunate coincidence

The World Cup was originally supposed to be held across five Indian cities, but a neutral venue had to be brought in because of the agreement between the BCCI, PCB and ICC in December 2024. It necessitated all India-Pakistan matches at ICC events to be at neutral venues. Colombo benefitted from its vicinity, edging out a potential move to the UAE. A move to the Middle East would have jacked up travel times and costs.

Bangladesh wasn’t a realistic option: October is usually the month of retreating monsoon, but has seen substantial rainfall this time due to a depression in the Bay of Bengal. However, they're currently hosting Bangladesh men's team without any interruption. Besides, India's men's tour of Bangladesh in August was mutually deferred in August, amidst worsening bilateral ties between the two nations.

However, a move to Sri Lanka proved to be far from ideal. Colombo, the only venue outside India, was affected by the northeast monsoon.

Pakistan’s final league game against Sri Lanka was washed out just 4.2 overs in, after which their captain Fatima Sana took aim at the choice of venues: “The weather didn't go in our favour against England and in the last two games. The ICC must arrange good venues for the World Cup because we have been waiting for this for four years.”

Pakistan ended without a win. They would have been particularly miffed after sharing points against England. Pakistan first reduced them to 133-9 in an innings reduced to 31 overs. Then, with a target adjusted to 113, they were 34-0 when more rain washed away their hopes.

New Zealand, too, got into a tangle because of the rain, with washouts against Sri Lanka and Pakistan requiring them to win against India and England for a semi-final spot. They lost to the hosts, which meant the England game became skipper Sophie Devine’s last.

The timings of matches

The fact that matches were played in rain-hit venues is just one aspect: barring one, all started at 3pm local time. The weather pattern at this time of year in Colombo is for mornings to be clear, giving way to heavy rainfall in the afternoons and evenings.

There was only one day game – England v New Zealand – across the tournament, starting at 11am in Visakhapatnam to adjust for another game that evening in Navi Mumbai.

Devine made her displeasure clear after their match against Pakistan was washed out: “It’s extremely frustrating. You wait four years for a World Cup, and to have rain play such a massive part in it, it is disappointing. I think, hopefully, in future editions, they might consider starting games earlier in the day. We’ve obviously seen here that the rain usually comes in the afternoon, so there’s a real opportunity to play these matches at 10 or 11 am and actually get a game in”.

She later spoke about it on Sky Sports, questioning why Colombo was picked as a venue in the first place: “I heard Fatima Sana also speaking about it, that they don’t play much cricket. We don’t play much cricket, especially in the ODI format. And to have the World Cup so badly affected by something, again, everyone knows about.

“We saw it as soon as we found out that the tournament is going to be played partly in Sri Lanka. October is monsoon season. So it didn’t take much, a little search on Google, and it’s pretty obvious to everyone.

“You certainly hope, moving forward, there is a bit more future planning and flexibility, and being able to adapt. I understand money, broadcasters, TV; it all helps fund the game. But it’s not much fun seeing the covers being put on and off and players in the changing room.”

The Ranji Trophy has been running in parallel in India without much disruption from mid-October, with the first two rounds now done.

Advantage India?

It’s been a widely common sentiment across the last few ICC events: Indian teams tend to be handed unfair advantage. At the Champions Trophy earlier this year, West Indies great Andy Roberts said the ICC must say no to India at times: “India even had an advantage at last year’s T20 World Cup, where they knew in advance where their semi-final would be played [in Guyana]. At the Champions Trophy, India did not have to travel at all. How can a team not travel during a tournament?”

Part of the same has come about at this World Cup too. After three defeats in a row, India were staring at an early exit, but were left playing the sixth and seventh ranked teams at the same venue to secure qualification, as part of the draw (India have won six out of nine ODIs against Bangladesh, but have lost one and tied one in the last four completed games).

Similar to the advantage offered to hosts in other ICC events too, India were also guaranteed to play their semi-final in Navi Mumbai, irrespective of the position they were on the points table, and therefore, were they to make the knockouts, would stay in the same city for the last two weeks of the competition.

It also helped that the format of the World Cup this time decides tie-breakers based on number of wins, and not the net run rate. This proved to be a disadvantage for teams running into a no-result and sharing points. The other semi-final is being held in Guwahati 19 days after the last league game here. The two semi-finalists had to travel from Indore or Visakhapatnam to Guwahati, and one of them will have to fly to Navi Mumbai for the final if they qualify.

Breaking new ground?

For a tournament touted to be the stepping stone for something grander in women’s cricket, a hard look needs to be given to something as fundamental as scheduling. Two years ago for the men's World Cup, the BCCI were criticised for the late opening of tickets, leaving fans in the lurch. This year, the final schedule for the World Cup came out just over a month before the first ball, and two months after the fixtures list for the 2026 Women’s T20 World Cup had been finalised. There was no sign of travelling overseas fans across venues, and those who turned up had to sit through curtains of rain and stop-start cricket.

If players and fans feel hard done by, who is the sport catering to?

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