Unlike in many other Pacific island countries, where women's cricket has been played alongside the men's game, women's cricket was only introduced to the Cook Islands in 2009. A high-performance program was established in the same year, with assistance from
ICC East Asia-Pacific (EAP) and a New Zealand provincial governing body, the
Northern Districts Cricket Association. The sport quickly gained in popularity amongst Cook Islander women, with significant numbers of clubs established in only a few years – in April 2014, it was reported that there were 600 female participants in the sport, out of a total population of 8,000 women. At the 2012 ICC EAP Development Programme Awards, the Cook Islands Cricket Association won the award for "Best Women's Cricket Initiative". With earlier applications to participate in regional tournaments having been declined, the Cook Islands made its international debut at the 2012 EAP Women's Championship in
Port Vila,
Vanuatu. That tournament was played using the
Twenty20 format, with the winner progressing to the
2013 World Twenty20 Qualifier in Ireland. The team joined the three sides from the 2010 tournament –
Japan,
Papua New Guinea, and
Samoa – as well as
Fiji and
Vanuatu (also making their tournament debut). The Cook Islands lost all three of its group-stage matches by large margins, and eventually placed last after losing to Fiji in the fifth-place playoff. In the opening game against Samoa, they were bowled out for 36 from 12.1 overs, while against PNG they were all out for 47 from 17.3 overs. In 2014, the Cook Islanders played several exhibition matches against club teams touring the islands from New Zealand, and were consequently invited to the 2014 EAP Women's Championship, despite their poor performance at the previous edition. However, they were unable to win the subsequent third-place playoff against Samoa, and in the earlier group stages had lost all of their games. The Cook Islands' next major tournament is
the women's event at the
2015 Pacific Games in
Port Moresby. In December 2020, the ICC announced the qualification pathway for the
2023 ICC Women's T20 World Cup. The Cook Islands were named in the
2021 ICC Women's T20 World Cup EAP Qualifier regional group, alongside seven other teams; however, due to COVID-19, the tournament did not go ahead. The Cook Islands have been named as participants in the
2023 ICC Women's T20 World Cup EAP Qualifier, which will mark their debut in an ICC pathway event. ==Tournament history==