Seventh for the Aussies

At a sold-out Lord's on Sunday, Australia's women lifted the ICC Women's T20 World Cup, completing an unbeaten tournament with a seven-wicket dismantling of hosts England. Beth Mooney anchored the chase of 151 for the third consecutive time in a final. Ellyse Perry walked her side across the finish line with seventeen balls to spare.

This is Australia's seventh T20 World Cup crown and a stunning fourteenth women's World Cup title overall. No other country in the history of either format comes close. The men's side, for all their own considerable record, have never achieved anything of comparable consistency at the global level. Australian women's cricket is no longer a secondary endeavour bolted onto the main event. It is, by measurable outcome, the most successful sporting programme this country's nearest cricketing rival has ever built. Contrast this to Pakistan's plight. Our women's team has not progressed beyond the group stage of any T20 World Cup edition since the tournament began in 2009. Australians have built a domestic women's competition that feeds directly into the national programme, a bilateral fixture calendar that tests their players against the highest available opposition and a pipeline of talent that means when one generation ages, another is ready. We, on the other hand, have built none of these things with any seriousness, and their results confirm it.

Pakistan will not become competitive by accident. It will require a decision, made at the level where decisions of this kind are actually made, that women's cricket in this country is worth building properly. That decision has not yet been made. Until it is, the gap between seven titles and none will keep widening. Women's cricket must no longer be an afterthought for those at the helm.