Jay Shah hails "biggest-ever" start to Women's T20 World Cup 2026 as records tumble
The International Cricket Council (ICC) chairman, Jay Shah, has reacted to the biggest ever weekend of the ongoing ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026 in England and Wales.
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The ongoing ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 has been really attractive for fans after the first week, as teams have produced some impressive performances with both bat and ball. The ICC chairman, Jay Shah, has also lauded the competition's record-breaking attendance and viewership figures.
The event, which began on June 12 with a brilliant crowd at Edgbaston in Birmingham to cheer for the home side, England, against Sri Lanka, continued to take the higher route as India faced Pakistan and earned another memorable victory.
What Jay Shah said about the tournament's record-breaking numbers
A total of 44844 spectators attended the matches across the first three days in Birmingham, Manchester, and Southampton, setting a new attendance record for the opening weekend of an ICC Women’s event. The figure overtook the 34680 spectators, who turned up in the opening three days of the ICC Women’s ODI World Cup 2025 in India.
These records show the growth and love for the fans towards women’s cricket. The weekend was headlined by the India vs Pakistan clash, which had a sell-out crowd of 18814. It was also the highest attended group-stage match of Women’s World Cup history, surpassing the 15835 of the last season in Dubai.
“It's a blockbuster start to the @ICC #WT20WorldCup 2026. Opening weekend (Fri-Sun) saw almost 45000 fans in attendance across #Birmingham, #Manchester, and # Southampton. This is the biggest ever opening weekend for an ICC women's event.” The International Cricket Council (ICC) chairman expressed in a X post.
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“Live Digital viewership in India for #IndvPak @JioHotstar crossed 25 million unique users - more than the aggregate viewership for the entire last edition of WT20WC. Peak viewership in the UK on #SkySports was the highest-ever for any WT20WC match. Across India, the UK, and the world over.” Jay Shah added in the same post.
The broadcasters are also delighted with the proceedings as JioStar’s coverage on JioHotstar has got a cumulative live reach of 215 million viewers and 1.3 billion minutes of live watch time so far.
Sky Sports has reported a peak audience, while there have been more than 753 million video views recorded across the social media content, which is a 150% increment from the same stage of the last T20 World Cup in 2024.
How the teams have fared in the Women's T20 World Cup 2026 so far
After the end of 13 games in the group stage of the competition, India and Australia are at the top with two victories in as many clashes untill June 19. The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side are at the top of the points table in group A with a strong net run rate of +3.975, while Australia are at the second rank with a NRR of +3.875.
On the other hand, England and the West Indies are unbeaten with two wins in as many fixtures. The Nat Scriver Brunt-led side is at the top with an NRR of +2.763, while the West Indies are in second position with a NRR of +0.233.
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India’s Smriti Mandhana is the leading run-getter with 142 runs in two innings at a strike rate of 156.04 with two successive fifties, as Shree Charani and Aaliyah Alleyne are the joint leading wicket-takers with seven scalps in two innings.
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