Dubai, March 23: ICC President David Morgan has paid tribute to Australia for hosting a fantastic ICC Women`s World Cup and hoped the success of the tournament will encourage other girls to take up the sport.

"It has been a high-quality event as it was the first to be organised by the ICC. It has been a fantastic success," Morgan said.

"I think the cricketers have appreciated the level of organisation and expertise that has been brought to the event.”

"I am truly grateful to the people in Cricket Australia, Cricket New South Wales and the ICC for the way in which they put the whole thing together. It has been really very impressive," he added.

Morgan also praised the volunteers for their efforts in making the event a memorable one.

"The contribution of the volunteers has been really excellent. I first saw volunteers in action at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 in South Africa. Seeing them at this event, which was a smaller event, I would say they have played an even bigger part. It has been really very important and their contribution was outstanding.”

"They worked tirelessly and today if we can look back at the success of this tournament it is also because of the devotion and commitments of the volunteers."

The tournament, spread over 16 days, produced outstanding individual and team performances and Morgan thanked the players for their superb performances and hoped the exciting women`s cricket calendar would motivate more players.

"We should not forget the cricketers who gave their heart and soul for their teams and played cricket in accordance with its rich traditions.”

"After watching over the past few days, I was pleased to see the improvement in standard. It was a pleasure to watch women`s cricket which was skilful, demanding and very good entertainment.”

"It is my certain view that the teams which have not done so well this time will be motivated by the quality of this event and would try to do better in the immediate future.”

"With two ICC World Twenty20 events coming up in relatively short period where a women`s event will be staged alongside the men`s event, this is very promising for women`s cricket and more girls will be interested and motivated by this calendar," he said in an ICC release.

Morgan also thanked the contribution of ICC`s commercial and broadcast partners.

"The game owes a huge vote of thanks to our commercial partners, Global Partners Reliance Communications Limited, PepsiCo and LG Electronics, our Official Partners Emirates Airlines, Reebok and Yahoo and Local Partners for this event," he said.

Bureau Report