ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022: Captains of all 8 teams, Format, Venues - All you need to know

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Christchurch, March 3: The highly-anticipated ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2022 will kick off on Friday (March 4) with hosts New Zealand taking on West Indies in the tournament opener. The multi-nation ODI tournament will see the top eight teams battle it out for the coveted trophy.

The teams will lock horns with each other in a single league format with every team playing the other once and the top four advancing to the semifinal.

The final will be held on April 3. The tournament will be staged across six venues in Mount Maunganui, Dunedin, Hamilton, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

Here's all that you need to know about the showpiece event:

Captains:

England: Heather Knight

Australia: Meg Lanning

India: Mithali Raj

New Zealand: Sophie Devine

South Africa: Sune Luus

Bangladesh: Nigar Sultana

Pakistan: Bismah Maroof

West Indies: Stafanie Taylor

# Hosts New Zealand take on the West Indies in the opening game on March 4

# 8 teams are participating in the multi-nation tournament in a round-robin format

# A total of 31 matches, including the 3 knockout matches, will be staged across six venues

# Christchurch will host the final on 3 April

# In 2000, New Zealand defeated Australia in the final, the last time the tournament was held in New Zealand

# Favourites Australia will look to stretch their record number of tournament wins to a magnificent seven

# Southern Stars head into the World Cup as the No.1 ranked side in the ICC Team rankings and have lost just one ODI in their past 30 games

# Defending champions, England, aim for a triumph to claim their fifth World Cup title

# Mithali Raj - who was part of WC finals in 2005 and 2017 - is looking to guide Indian eves to their maiden WC title

# Pakistan are the lowest-ranked team in the tournament

# South Africa will be led by Sune Luus in place of the injured Dane van Niekerk

# West Indies will search for a first title having fallen at the final hurdle in 2013

# Bangladesh are yet to play Australia, England and New Zealand in ODIs

# Christchurch will host one semifinal and the final, Wellington will host the other semifinal