Women Seek Their Place In Sun At World Cup

The women's World Cup open in Mumbai on Thursday by means of the cricketers hoping to put aside reminiscences of an unsettling build-up and gain recognition in a country where the men's game reigns supreme.

Barely a week before the create, the International Cricket Council was forced to revise the agenda because of security concerns nearby Pakistan's participation in Mumbai where the entire tournament was to be played.

All group B match, featuring Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, were shunted to the cricketing backwater of Cuttack following threats from the right-wing supporter of independence Shiv Sena party to disrupt matches in Mumbai.

Pakistan will remain in Cuttack if they meet the criteria for the second round, but will still have to travel to Mumbai if they create the final at the Braboure stadium on February 17.

Indian captain Mithali Raj said she was let down that the Pakistani team had attracted protests.

"I personally feel so as to politics should not be concerned in sport," Raj told AFP.

"Sport is more about activity and a fun-loving atmosphere. So we be supposed to not be getting too a lot of political issues into it."

Preparations were also disrupt when the hosts made Mumbai's Wankhede stadium, venue of the men's World Cup final in2011, engaged at the last minute.

Three grounds in Mumbai determination host group A, involving defending champions England, Sri Lanka, the West Indies plus hosts India.

The players have in use the disruption in their pace and are excited about the tournament, which was first play in 1973, two years before the men's World Cup was inaugurated in 1975.

"I think it is safe to say that the women's game today is unrecognisable from when I started in 1997," said England's head Charlotte Edwards, set to appear in her fifth World Cup.

"We are attracting loads of youthful girls who want to play the game. We have changed people's perceptions concerning women's cricket a lot. Hopefully this tournament will be another step in beating that message home."

India's Raj, preparing for her fourth World Cup, hopes women's cricket will finally take off in her country where a number of of her male counterparts are national icons.

"Indian society is still is not approaching when it comes to women's cricket," Raj said.

"Parents are still more paying attention in putting their girls into more feminine sports like tennis or table-tennis."

Australia go into the contest as favourites to win their sixth title, subsequent victory in the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka last October.

The Australian side include Ellyse Perry, a pace bowler who also plays football for her country, the Indian-born Lisa Sthalekar, and Alyssa Healy, niece of former Australian men's wicket-keeper Ian Healy.

Pakistan are more concerned about adapting to the new one-day rules than about their security in Cuttack, anywhere they are staying in the club house of the Barabati sports ground for security reasons.

"We have not played beneath the new rules where five players have to be inside the circle at all era and the use of new balls as of both ends," captain Sana Mir said.

"We must get used to them previous to the tournament starts."

Three teams from the two group will advance to the Super Sixes round, from where the pinnacle two will qualify for the final.