The ICC Women's World Cup to be staged in Australia in 2009 will be the first to be played under the auspices of the ICC since its merger with the International Women's Cricket Council (IWCC) in 2005.

Australia will defend the title it won after defeating India in the final in South Africa in 2005. The other seven teams to take part in the tournament include India, New Zealand, England, Sri Lanka, West Indies, South Africa and Pakistan.

South Africa and Pakistan qualified for the World Cup after reaching the final of the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifiers staged in Stellenbosch, South Africa, in March.

The Women's World Cup has been running for longer than the men's version and was first staged in England in 1973, when it was won by the hosts, which beat Australia by 118 runs in the final at Edgbaston, Birmingham.

Since then there have been a further seven tournaments with Australia winning five of them (1978, 1982, 1988, 1997 and 2005), and England (in 1993) and New Zealand (2000) both triumphing once.

The tournament has been staged twice each in England (1973 and 1993), India (1978 and 1997) and New Zealand (1982 and 2000) as well as Australia (1988) and South Africa (2005).

Women's cricket came under the auspices of the ICC and ACC in 2005 when the ICC merged with the International Women’s Cricket Council (IWCC). Before the merger, the IWCC had 15 members and since integration the women's game has grown fast and there were now 59 members with formal girls' and/or women's teams playing in structured cricket competitions.

A further 30 do not have competition teams yet but do have girls in junior development initiatives. That makes 89 of ICC's 101 members with some women's cricket and it is growing all the time.

The ICC Women's Committee is made up of Betty Timmer (chairwoman), Catherine Campbell (EAP), Belinda Clark (co-opted), Shubhangi Kulkarni (Asia), Kerri Laing (Africa), Clare Connor (Europe) and Carol Whilby-Maxwell (Americas).