Lanning: Going to be a very open World Cup

Australia women’s captain Meg Lanning admits that the upcoming World Cup will be one of the most open in history but is confident her team will be able to deliver when it matters.

The Aussies have a remarkable record at women’s World Cups having won six out of the 10 tournaments while England have three and New Zealand have been successful in one.

But as the women’s game keeps growing around the world more teams have emerged and started to challenge the stronger nations.

West Indies are the current holders of the World T20 while India and South Africa have improved significantly over the last two years with more exposure.

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The Australia squad will spend some time with past World Cup winners before flying out to the UK where they will attempt to defend their trophy from 24 June to 23 July 2017

Lanning said: “It’s a great chance to learn from those players who have been there and done it before, and probably under some difficult circumstances at times.

“It definitely wasn’t anywhere near professional when we were winning those World Cups a while ago.

“We’re very excited as a group to be able to meet the players who have been successful in the past, because World Cups are very special and different to what we’re used to.

“Our team has been very successful over a long period of time. We’re looking forward to forging our own way as a team, and trying to deliver as best we can.”

The skipper added: “We know it’s going to be really tough. We know it’s going to be a very open tournament.

“But we’re all excited about the opportunity and looking forward to making the most of the last couple of weeks in Australia and then getting over to England and preparing as well as we can.”