Champions Australia defend their title against seven other sides in a tournament lasting a month and every match will be televised live. Hosts England open the tournament against India at the County Ground in Derby. The final on July 23 will be staged at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, the spiritual home cricket. The ground is owned by the Marylebone Cricket Club, who are better known as MCC.

They have now embraced the women’s game, but back in 1973, when the first Women’s World Cup was organised, it was very a different story.

Women were even not permitted to apply for MCC membership, let alone play on the ground. It was emblematic of attitudes which had persisted from the 19^th Century. Manufacturers produced a blue ball for the ladies because it was feared they would be alarmed by a conventional red one. When the Women’s Cricket Association was founded in 1926, their early requests for a fixture at Lord’s was met by a cool “no dates”.

Requests for a match at Lord’s in that first World Cup were rejected, but teams were allowed to practice in the nets at the Nursery End of the ground. To do so, they had to walk across the main arena. So near yet so far.

“It is the one place where women’s cricket lib has not broken through,” said a philosophical England captain Rachael Heyhoe Flint.

“We are sure they are sympathetic to us but the programmes are planned so far in advance. It would have been wonderful to have played one of this summer’s matches there”.

Heyhoe Flint was far more than just the best known women’s cricketer. A journalist and public relations specialist, she was a major driving force behind the development of women’s cricket. A great supporter of Wolverhampton Wanderers football club, she persuaded fellow fan Sir Jack Hayward to do more than just watch.

Sir Jack had become a multi-millionaire businessman and his base was in The Bahamas. In the early 1970s, he sponsored England’s women on tours to the Caribbean and been suitably impressed by what he had seen.

In July 1971, he was in Eastbourne, a seaside resort on the South Coast of England, to watch another women’s match take place. Here, a conversation with Women’s cricket officials led to “a positive proposition”, which saw Hayward agreed to bankroll the World Cup tournament.

“He was offering us an opportunity which could, if we only had the courage to accept the challenge, put the minority sport of cricket on the map,” said the official report of the tournament.

That winter, the Women’s Cricket Association gave a formal green-light to the 1973 World Cup.

The host nation entered two teams, England and Young England, and an International Invitation XI would also be asked to take part. This was, said organisers, to ensure a “balanced tournament”.

Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago completed a seven team line-up.

South Africa were notable absentees. Apartheid was still in force at that time.

Tournament organisers insisted they were “sensitive to current world opinion and in no position to cope with the possible consequences of flouting that opinion”. They avoided “a direct invitation” to the South Africa and Rhodesia Women’s Cricket Association. Instead, they invited five South African players to join the International team, but even these were hurriedly withdrawn when Jamaica and Trinidad threatened to pull out.

It is highly unusual for a women’s world championship to be established ahead of the men, but that’s what happened in 1973. The women also were the first to use the term World Cup. When the men finally got round to it two years later, the formal title for their tournament was the International Championship cricket for the Prudential Cup.

The official opening ceremony came in June 1973 at the Civil Service Sports Ground in West London in glorious sunshine. All seven teams gathered for a mini-tournament played over 22 overs a side. Organisers said it was when “competing teams stretched their legs, flexed their muscles and cast wary eyes on the talents of their future opponents- whilst trying to hide their own of course”. Incidentally, the women cricketers wore skirts in those days. In 2017, team uniforms are identical to those worn by the men.

Proceedings were officially opened by Dr Roger Bannister, now a Sir, who was chairman of the Sports Council in Great Britain. In 1954, he had become the first runner to run a mile in under four minutes and beaten John Landy in an epic race dubbed the Miracle Mile at the 1954 Commonwealth Games.

The British Prime Minister Edward Heath had also greeted the teams his residence in Downing Street.

The competition proper was to begin at Kew Green in South West London, except that the players of Jamaica and New Zealand were left kicking their heels as rain washed out any possibility of play. One other match was all but ruined by the weather, and three others shortened by rain. The official report said: “Having lured all into a false sense of security, reverted to its normal summer standard and might have wrecked the competition.”

Apart from their six competition matches, each side played a further half dozen times against regional and club teams to maintain a competitive edge.

After their early washout, the Jamaicans had another match badly affected by the rain. The weather also dogged them off the playing field. A visit to Stratford to see the home of Shakespeare with a picnic lunch was also rained off.

At least their planned boating excursion did go ahead at Otley in Yorkshire. This was followed by fish and chips at Bradford. Each team had a similar programme of social events.

Trinidad went to a biscuit factory and also enjoyed “an early taste of Christmas pudding”. Later in the month, they were treated to an introduction to Lancashire hot pot.

The Australians went to Longleat Wildlife Park. Here, they had what was described in the official tournament report as “a confrontation with an inquisitive rhino”.

Although the tournament was conducted on a league basis, the final match at Edgbaston in Birmingham proved to be winner takes all. Australia had been unbeaten to this point and they came up against England, who had only dropped points because of the weather.

Marketing had been modest. There was scarcely a mention of the women in the official Test and County Cricket Board’s promotional brochure for the summer. The final match was televised, although not live. Spectators at the ground were offered the chance to win a magnificent Pye Colour TV, provided they had bought the scorecard with the lucky number.

Some of the players even shot their own home movies of the pre-match events. Few had video recorders in those days. Even Heyhoe Flint had a cine film of the day.

When play in the final match started, the crowd was sparse, but England cruised into control thanks once opening pair Enid Bakewell and Lynne Thomas.

Their eventual total of 279 proved a long way beyond the Australians and England won by 92 runs.

The trophy, donated by Sir Jack, was presented by Princess Anne, a sportswoman herself. Heyhoe Flint was hoisted shoulder high by her England team-mates.

“We have been trying for almost 50 years and finally a few people are realising that the women can play a good standard of cricket,” said Heyhoe Flint.

MCC President Aidan Crawley had been watching and seemed impressed.

“It seems to me of the greatest importance that women should not only take an interest in the game behind the scenes but that they should play the game themselves. Nothing will ensure the continuing prosperity of cricket more than that future generations of wives and mothers should understand the finer points and love the game for its own sake”, he said.

A Birmingham resident, Stanley Gassey, was so impressed he wrote to the Daily Telegraph newspaper. “It is devoutly to be hoped that women’s cricket will provide a challenge and indeed an inspiration to its at times somnolent brother game,” Gassey wrote.

There were still mountains to climb across women’s sport in 1973. Pre-war Wimbledon champion Bobby Riggs had been scathing in his criticism of women’s tennis. He beat leading Australian player Margaret Court and then challenged Billie Jean King. The match attracted worldwide attention was held at the Houston Astrodome in September 1973 and dubbed the Battle of the Sexes. King won emphatically to silence Riggs.

On a much smaller scale in London, a cricket match between England’s women and an England men’s veterans team took place.

The England men included Denis Compton, Godfrey Evans and Sir Len Hutton, who’d all enjoyed their heydays in the 1940s and 50s. Organised with the best of intentions, it drew as much attention as the Women’s World Cup.

Attitudes were still entrenched in the cricket world, but eventually legislation guaranteeing equal opportunities was introduced by the British Government. In 1976, England’s women cricketers were finally permitted to play at Lord’s for the first time. The World Cup returned to England in 1993 and this time there was a Lord’s final.

It would still be five years before women could apply to become members of MCC. Heyhoe Flint was one of the first 10 honorary members and later she became Dame Rachael for services to cricket.

The 2017 tournament promises to showcase women’s cricket as never before, but many of the modern players will have her in their thoughts. She died from cancer only a few months before this year’s competition was due to begin.