Women's international cricket became officially integrated with the men's game under the umbrella of the ICC after the eighth Women's World Cup in South Africa in 2005, which was won by Australia.

At present, 89 of the ICC's 104 Members have some form of organised cricket or girls' cricket going on and that number is growing all the time.

The main positive developments in women's cricket can be broken down into three areas. Firstly, the development of the game beyond its traditional boundaries has been very encouraging and there were a number of inaugural regional Women's World Cup qualifying events held across the world.

Secondly, there has been encouraging integration between the Members' cricket boards and what used to be their women's cricket counterparts, notably in India. The ICC now deals with only one body per Member for men's and women's cricket although there is still further work to be done in some countries in this regard.

Finally, through leveraging the support of the ICC's commercial partners, the game has greater media exposure and publicity than ever before, with live broadcast coverage of the ICC Women's World Cup, and integrated events such as the ICC World Twenty20, where the semi-finals and final of the men's and women's matches are played as double headers.

The ICC Women's World Cup was staged in Sydney, Australia in March 2009 and was the first to be played under the auspices of the ICC since its merger with the International Women's Cricket Council (IWCC) in 2005.
England claimed the title with a thrilling four-wicket victory over a spirited New Zealand in the final in front of ESPN STAR Sports cameras at North Sydney Oval, Sydney. It is England's third World Cup triumph but its first outside England following its victories in 1973 and 1993.