Women's Cricket World Cup in New Zealand set to begin

The Women's Cricket World Cup in New Zealand gets under way on Friday, with England looking to defend the trophy they won in 2017.

The hosts play West Indies in Tauranga (01:00 GMT) in the first game of a tournament delayed by a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

England begin against favourites Australia in Hamilton on Saturday.

There will be live commentary of 20 matches on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra and BBC Sounds.

There will also be video highlights on the BBC Sport website and app, and regular episodes of the No Balls podcast, hosted by England fast bowler Kate Cross and 2017 World Cup winner Alex Hartley, who is part of the Test Match Special commentary team.

The tournament is taking place against the backdrop of a surge in the Omicron variant in New Zealand, so crowds will be extremely limited, at least for the opening matches.

Eight teams are taking part in the 50-over event, all playing each other across six venues in the group stage before the top four advance to the semi-finals.

The final will be played at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch on 3 April.

The winners will take $1.32m (£0.99m) from a total $3.5m prize fund. The sum for the champions is double what England received in 2017, but still only a third of what their male counterparts received for winning the men's World Cup in 2019.

Despite being the holders, England find themselves in the pack chasing Australia.

Heather Knight's side arrive at the World Cup having been soundly beaten in the Ashes, when they went winless across the multi-format series.

Seven players remain from the squad that won a dramatic final at a sold-out Lord's five years ago. Established names like Sarah Taylor, Laura Marsh, Jenny Gunn and Danielle Hazell have moved on, to be replaced