Australia’s 3-0 series victory versus South Africa this week brings to a close the largest international cricket tournament ever staged – 84 matches* played over 2½ years – offering the perfect opportunity to pull-together some pretty definitive rankings for batsmen, bowlers and all-rounders.

There will be little surprise as to who tops the batting rankings – Wisden’s 2014 women’s award winner, Meg Lanning, who scored 5 centuries and another 5 fifties in the championship, amassing well over 1000 runs in total.

The good news for the opposition though is that if you get Lanning out… in walks Ellyse Perry, ranked at No. 3 on our list! Martin Davies from WCB commented to us the other day that Perry is becoming more and more a batsman who bowls a bit, and there is little doubt that she would merit selection in anyone’s World XI, even if she didn’t bowl at all.

Only one batsman finished the tournament with a Strike Rate over 100 – Nat Sciver – the highest-ranked England player at No. 7. Though a few tail-enders also achieved a Strike Rate of 100+ on a handful of innings, Sciver did it across 16 innings, scoring 533 runs in total, including 6 fifties.

Also worth a mention are Chamari Atapattu and Javeria Khan, ranked at 14 and 15 respectively – it is one thing to score your runs against Pakistan and Sri Lanka (76% of Tammy Beaumont’s runs came against those two bottom-placed sides) but arguably more impressive to score them for those sides against the higher-ranked teams. (For the record, just 27% of Atapattu’s runs came against Pakistan, and only 27% (sic.) of Javeria’s runs were scored v Sri Lanka.)

Ranking = Runs * Strike Rate

* In theory at least – though of course a few of those matches weren’t actually played! The next largest was the 1997 ICC Trophy – 82 matches, excluding warm-ups – thanks to Peter Griffiths of cricketarchive.com for the info on this!

The ICC’s Technical Committee has ruled that India are responsible for not playing their Women’s International Championship series with Pakistan – awarding Pakistan all 6 points, and mandating that India’s Net Run Rate be adjusted to award 0 runs from 50 overs in each of the 3 “missing” matches.

The series was supposed to have been played earlier this year, with Pakistan hosting; but the BCCI are currently unwilling to participate in bilateral series with Pakistan, in either the men’s or women’s games, due to the ongoing geopolitical situation between the two countries, and India are understood to have simply never replied to Pakistan’s invitation to play the matches in the UAE.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the BCCI are reportedly not happy with the outcome, and according to the web site news18.com, are making threatening noises about the (men’s) Champions Trophy, also taking place in England next summer, with a BCCI spokesperson quoted as saying: “If ICC does not backtrack, the men’s team in solidarity with our women’s team won’t play in [the] Champions Trophy.”

Assuming that the decision is upheld, it confirms the final standings in the Women’s International Championship, with Australia, England, New Zealand and the West Indies going directly to the World Cup in England next year; whilst South Africa, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will join Ireland and Scotland, plus Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea and Thailand, in a qualifying tournament in Sri Lanka next February to decide the other 4 teams who will compete in England.

England

• Having sealed their World Cup qualification with a win in the first game, England went on to complete a 4-0 ODI series win against Sri Lanka.
• Things looked dicey for England in the final ODI, as they collapsed to 58-6, before a century-stand between Nat Sciver and Dani Hazell dug them out of the hole. England then bowled their hosts out for 78, with Laura Marsh taking 4-21.

New Zealand

• The White Ferns completed a whitewash of their own against Pakistan, with a 5-0 series victory, which guaranteed their qualification for the World Cup.
• After her recent success in South Africa, Amy Satterthwaite took just 6 wickets in this series…
• But on the other hand she did finish it with a series batting average of 197! Satterthwaite scored 3 centuries, all at well over a run-a-ball, to finish the calendar year with a massive 977 international runs, having also chipped-in with 21 wickets.

India v West Indies + South Africa

• There was yet another whitewash in the India v West Indies series – 3-0 to India; but it looks like it will still be West Indies heading directly to the World Cup.
• Even if the ICC decide later this week that the points should be shared from India’s unplayed series versus Pakistan, leaving both India and West Indies on 21 points, West Indies will go through on games won, and India must play the qualifying tournament, along with South Africa, who forfeited their outside chance of direct qualification, losing the 1st ODI to Australia.

WNCL

• The final weekend of round-robin matches saw Queensland Fire and New South Wales Breakers qualify for December’s final.
• With the Southern Stars occupied against South Africa, it was up to the domestic squads to step up. For the Fire, Beth Mooney hit a century (146 off 144 balls) as they beat Vic Spirit to finish top of the table; whilst for the Breakers Sarah Aley took 3-33, as they bowled-out the ACT Meteors to win their shoot-out by 13 runs and grab the other final spot.

Ireland’s Kim Garth and Gabby Lewis, plus Scotland’s Kathryn Bryce, have been selected for this year’s WBBL Associate Rookie Program, which gives players from the “minor” nations the sponsored opportunity to be part of a professional cricket setup for a couple of weeks during the competition – benefiting from the same coaching and facilities as the “full time” players on the team.

Irish bowling all-rounder Garth was part of last year’s program – spending a month in Hobart under the wing of Hurricane’s coach Julia Price, and was full of praise for the scheme when she spoke to us last summer:

“[Hobart] was pretty intense – it was training four or five times a week plus gym work [and] I got a good opportunity to work quite closely with Julia Price, who is a brilliant coach, so I did a lot of one-on-one with her on my [batting] technique.”

Garth is headed to the Sydney Sixers this year; whilst her colleague – batting all-rounder Gabby Lewis – is off to Hobart.

Meanwhile Scotland’s Kathryn Bryce – an opening batsman, who has also opened the bowling on occasion – is set to be a Melbourne Star, alongside Meg Lanning!

The three join players from China, Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea on the program.

With England suffering a bit of an injury crisis in Sri Lanka, Dani Hazell is the surprise choice as stand-in skipper, becoming the 22nd woman to captain England across all formats.

With Heather Knight (left hamstring) and Katherine Brunt(left thigh) ruled-out, coach Mark Robinson has turned to the Yorkshire off-spinner to lead the team.

It is an interesting choice – prior to this tour Hazell hadn’t played an ODI since South Africa back in February, missing the series against Pakistan and West Indies, though she played all 3 T20s in the summer; so this might be seen as partly a reward for loyalty over a period when she has had to spend a lot of time on the sidelines.

However, with 3 Super league captains – Georgia Elwiss, Nat Sciver and Lauren Winfield – in the team, might we not have expected one of them to be given the job? Perhaps, but by giving it to Hazell, Robinson effectively avoids a difficult choice which might have been seen to “anoint” a potential successor to Heather Knight in years to come, and left the other two thinking – why not me?

As we write, Hazell has taken her first captain’s wicket too – bowling opener Nipuni Hansika for 29 – you can follow the game here.

New Zealand v Pakistan

• After her success in South Africa, it has been another good week for Amy Satterthwaite, who hit two centuries in the 2nd and 3rd ODIs as the White Ferns took a 3-0 series lead against Pakistan.
• The first two ODIs were easy wins for the Kiwis, as Pakistan simply failed to score runs; but there were signs of things coming together a bit for the visitors in the 3rd ODI, as a century stand between Javeria Khan and Bismah Maroof provided the foundation for a total of 263-6.
• As things stand, New Zealand still need one more win to assure qualification for England 2017 – they have that opportunity on Thursday.

India v West Indies

• West Indies went into this series needing just one win to wrap-up their qualification; but thus far it has been India all the way, and they currently lead the series 2-0.
• In both ODIs, West Indies batted first, but failed to put enough runs on the board (131 in the 1st ODI, 153 in the 2nd) and India chased them down easily.
• West Indies have another chance to qualify again on Wednesday; but…
• There is still a slim hope for India of direct qualification – if they win well on Wednesday and the ICC’s committee decrees that they share the points from their “missing” series with Pakistan, they could directly qualify at West Indies’ expense. UPDATE: Games Won counts before NRR, and West Indies are well ahead on this.

Sri Lanka v England

• This has been a difficult one to follow, with only a barely-live scorecard and the ECB’s official Twitter feed providing information; but we know obviously that England have done the job they went to Sri Lanka to do – qualify for their own tournament with a win in the 2nd ODI – the 1st “Championship” match.
• Although England won the 2nd ODI by a huge margin (over 100 runs) they did get bowled out, albeit off the final ball of the 50 overs, but still clearly questions remain over the fragility of the batting, and it will be interesting to see if Emma Lamb gets a couple of games now that the pressure is off for the last 2 matches.

And Finally…

• There are questions over the participation of West Indies players in future KSL and WBBL tournaments, after the West Indies Cricket Board decided to impose a “release fee” of 20% of the player’s annual contract, before they are allowed to play. Will the host boards pay up? It could add significantly to the cost of employing West Indies stars, so we shall see…!!
• Lastly, if you haven’t already, pop over to the New Zealand Herald right now and read their big interview with Suzie Bates, in which she discusses frankly the state of the game there, in the light of an official report which suggested women’s cricket has become “endangered”.

New Zealand Cricket have accepted the findings of a damning independent report into the state of the women’s game in the country.

The report into the state of women’s cricket in New Zealand was commissioned by the board, and undertaken by Sarah Beaman, a former player and New Zealand age-group captain, who is now a management consultant specialising in sports and recreation.

Beaman’s report finds that beneath the veneer of the current team’s international success, domestic participation has dropped to near-disastrous levels, with over 50% of clubs offering no cricket at all for women or girls. Just 10% of players are female, almost all of whom are young girls who go on to drop out of the game as teenagers. At a management level, women hold only a small fraction of positions on New Zealand’s regional and national boards.

In the report’s executive summary, released today, Beaman writes of having discovered “women having virtually no voice in the governance or leadership of cricket, few women coaching or umpiring, and female players a species on the verge of extinction.”

A statement from New Zealand Cricket acknowledged the issues highlighted in the report and promised to put them right, saying:

“We have neglected the women’s game… We were wrong, and we now need to address the areas we’ve allowed to slip.”

The ECB have announced a restructuring of the England Women’s “Pathway” – splitting the Academy and age-group squads up into two new sections – a “Senior Academy” under ex Lancashire glove-butler John Stanworth and an “Academy” headed up by Loughborough Lightning Coach Salliann Briggs; with six “Regional Development Centers” beneath that, based on the six Super League franchises.

The squads for the 2016/17 winter training program are:

Senior Academy

Georgia Adams (Sussex)
Hollie Armitage (Yorkshire)
Georgia Boyce (Nottinghamshire)
Thea Brookes (Worcestershire)
Ellen Burt (Sussex)
Alice Davidson-Richards (Kent)
Freya Davies (Sussex)
Sophia Dunkley (Middlesex)
Sophie Ecclestone (Lancashire)
Kate George (Hampshire)
Georgia Hennessy (Warwickshire)
Evelyn Jones (Staffordshire)
Hannah Jones (Surrey)
Emma Lamb (Lancashire)
Sophie Luff (Somerset)
Paige Scholfield (Sussex)
Bryony Smith (Surrey)
Linsey Smith (Berkshire)
Ellie Threlkeld (Lancashire)

As predicted, Alex MacDonald and Steph Butler are out of the picture, with Alice Davidson-Richards and Georgia Hennessy coming back in from the wilderness.

Academy

Lauren Bell (Berkshire)
Maria Bouchier (Middlesex)
Izzy Cloke (Kent)
Charlie Dean (Hampshire)
Alice Dyson (Derbyshire)
Emily Edgcombe (Cornwall)
Danielle Gibson (Gloucestershire)
Sarah Glenn (Derbyshire)
Amy Gordon (Surrey)
Eva Gray (Surrey)
Lucy Higham (Leicestershire)
Anna Nicholls (Middlesex)
Tara Norris (Sussex)
Millie Pope (Middlesex)
Rihanna Southby (Surrey)
Alex Travers (Surrey)
Katie Wolfe (Middlesex)

This squad is always going to be more fluid as players mature at different rates, but two notable absences from last year – Megan Belt, despite a very good county season, topping the bowling rankings; and Cordelia Griffith, who we understand was selected but has chosen to concentrate on her studies.

This article was updated on 4/11/2016 re. Cordelia Griffith’s situation.