The Athletic has launched a Cricket WhatsApp Channel. Click here to join.The first day of what is expected to be the biggest World Cup in women’s cricket history saw the spotlight shift away from Ben Stokes and a West End nightclub to a West End musical and a crushing victory for an England side aiming for this to be their Lionesses or Red Roses moment.An opening ceremony at Edgbaston featuring a performance of Wicked and then a win by a thumping 87 runs for the hosts over Sri Lanka was welcome for a sport forced this week to deny that the England men’s side had become “a national embarrassment”.There was no curfew for England women to adhere to in Birmingham on Friday night because there was no need for one. Just quiet satisfaction at the first steps towards fulfilling lofty ambitions for both them and the sport at a pivotal moment for the female game.One of the main reasons why the England and Wales Cricket Board are so livid at Stokes and Gus Atkinson for bringing such unwelcome attention over the last week is that they want nothing to overshadow the women’s game’s attempts to put on an unprecedented show.England want to enter the wider public consciousness in this T20 World Cup over the next month in the same way their counterparts did when they hosted — and won — their own major tournaments: football’s European Championships in 2022 and 2025, and last year’s rugby World Cup.England’s women’s side see this tournament as their Lionesses or Red Roses moment (Matthew Lewis-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)The targets of the International Cricket Council (ICC) are loftier still, with the governing body predicting the biggest attendances for any women’s World Cup and the second-highest TV figures of any female sporting event, behind only the 2023 football World Cup.“This is a big moment of acceleration of the development of women’s sport around the world,” Sanjog Gupta, chief executive of the ICC, tells The Athletic on the opening night at Edgbaston.“We believe this tournament has the potential to be one of the two biggest women’s sporting events ever. The initial signs and indicators are good. It’s already sold more tickets than any previous edition of the women’s T20 World Cup.“There are a couple of variables out of our control, like good performances from key teams and the weather in England and Wales, but we are projecting the attendance to cross 250,000 and our ambition is to get it closer to 300,000.“The global viewing figures for the women’s 50-over World Cup last year passed 500 million and this has what it takes to go past that number. The last FIFA World Cup I think touched 900 million, but the 50-over World Cup and now this stand in the same league.”A crowd of 14,865 crammed into Edgbaston (Tom Dulat-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)Beth Barrett-Wild is acutely aware of the expectations of this World Cup as both tournament director for the ICC and the ECB’s director of the women’s professional game.“Our whole vision for the World Cup is to break women’s cricket into the mainstream and that is all about scale, status and re-setting ‘normal’ in terms of how we perceive, value and view women’s cricket,” Barrett-Wild tells The Athletic. “We don’t want it to be a niche pursuit. We want it to be normalised.“Our ambition is to be the UK’s most inclusive sport. That’s very much from a gender perspective and having as much opportunity for women’s and girls alongside men and boys.“There is a way to go. We know 40 per cent of UK sports fans still view cricket as a sport for men and boys as opposed to one that has real gender equality at heart, so that’s something we’re trying to change. That’s where things like the World Cup are really important in terms of shifting the perception and profile of women’s cricket.”The England dressing room prior to play (Matthew Lewis-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)For ambitions to be realised, one of those key teams Gupta talks about – England – need to have a good World Cup.They have been victorious in each of the four tournaments they have staged going back to 1973, but have failed to win any of the past six worldwide, spanning both the 50-over and T20 formats.“The best way for England to inspire the next generation, as in the World Cup in 2017, is to win it,” says the former England captain Nasser Hussain. “Charlotte Edwards (the England coach) will know that.“People are not inspired by losing semi-finals. They’re inspired by winners. Why do you think Australia have been such a force in women’s cricket? Because until very recently they won everything, so every young Australian girl wants to play for Australia.“I would love England to win it because it would be great for the game here, but momentum has been building in women’s cricket for some time now. When England won in 2017 there was a bit of a full stop afterwards, but this year the World Cup will be followed by a Test against India at Lord’s and then the Hundred. It’s an unstoppable force now.”The cast of “Wicked” entertain the crowd before the start of the World Cup (Philip Brown/Getty Images)Former England bowler Tash Farrant, who played 24 times for her country across white-ball formats, is perfectly placed to evaluate the progress cricket has made since the biggest day the women’s game has seen in the UK to date — England’s victory over India in that 50-over World Cup final at Lord’s nine years ago.“I thought the biggest thing that came from 2017 was a proper domestic structure in England that I was involved in as a player,” Farrant tells The Athletic. “Then the Hundred was the biggest game-changer in this country, and now this World Cup seems bigger still.“Matches are going to be played at the biggest international grounds and it’s not just about selling out the final. It’s hoping we have some really competitive games at the group stage and maybe the likes of Scotland creating an upset.“The biggest thing is for England to do well because that will get the country behind them. There will be pressure and they’re not the favourites. If they’re winning and getting to the knockout stages, that’s when they’ll gain momentum and start generating more interest.“England will have to be at their very best for a home victory to happen and Australia, India and South Africa will all be very hard to beat. But they’re all in the other group so that’s a good thing for England.”Fans show their support during England’s victory over Sri Lanka (Tom Dulat-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)Perhaps the biggest problem the 12-team tournament has is the clash not only with England men’s Test series against New Zealand and the ongoing saga around Stokes’ captaincy, but also with the men’s football World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico that started on Thursday and runs until July 19.The women’s cricket World Cup final will be at Lord’s on July 5.“It is an issue, especially in England,” says Hussain. “My lads are talking about where they are going to watch the football. But it’s something we’ve had to deal with for a long time. Football has always been the challenge for cricket in England, whereas it’s different in India because cricket is the No1 sport. That’s why it was so significant that India won the last 50-over women’s World Cup.“The women’s game will go through the roof in India now, whereas here it’s always competing with football. That’s why it’s so important for England to win this tournament.”Farrant, the new female face of Sky’s coverage, believes the two big world tournaments this summer can go hand in hand.“The football games are later in the evenings so I think it would be nice to watch the cricket and then go on to the football,” she says. “If England start doing well in both we can bounce off them and enjoy both. People can turn on their telly when the cricket starts and go all the way through to the football.”Nat Sciver-Brunt shakes hands with Sri Lanka’s Chamari Athapaththu after the hosts’ victory (Matthew Lewis-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)The growth of the women’s game is reflected by the television coverage. Sky will show all matches live in the UK on Sky Sports and Now, with both Friday’s opener and the final being screened free to air.Hussain might normally have been forgiven wanting to concentrate on the men’s Test series against New Zealand, or the start of their own white-ball matches against India.“But for me it was a no-brainer,” he says. “England are in a home World Cup. Why wouldn’t you want to do that?“I don’t see it as ‘women’s cricket’. I see it as an England team playing in a World Cup on home soil. I can cover a franchise game and think: ‘Okay, that was great fun but I won’t remember it in a year’s time.’“But turning up to any game in a World Cup — men’s or women’s — has a meaning and that’s why I always want to do ICC events.”The trophy was at Edgbaston (George Wood/Getty Images)This ICC event provided the perfect start.Edgbaston was around two-thirds full and England got off to a flyer with Danni Wyatt-Hodge smashing an unbeaten 105 off 62 balls as they amassed 219-1, the highest score in any women’s T20 World Cup.Wyatt-Hodge, who has only just returned to the England side following the birth of her daughter, Daisy, last month, then took a spectacular catch to send back captain Chamari Athapaththu. She dropped two others but it mattered little as Sri Lanka hobbled to 132 all out. Freya Kemp took 4-21 for an England side who cruised to the most emphatic of opening statements.“That was for Daisy,” Wyatt-Hodge told reporters of her ‘cradle’ celebration upon reaching three figures. “We said it was important to start well and we did that tonight. It was great fun and that was a great crowd. I really enjoy playing here.”Freya Kemp celebrates the wicket of Harshitha Samarawickrama (George Wood/Getty Images)Gupta, as ICC CEO, is fully aware of the significance of India winning the women’s 50-over World Cup on home soil last year.“It activated the women’s market in India in a way that hadn’t been done before,” he says. “It was the 1983 moment for women’s cricket because the impact on the sport in India when the men won the World Cup at Lord’s 43 years ago was enormous, just as 2017 was the moment for women’s cricket in this country.“What we’ve seen with every event has been a significant step up. What we’ve done over the last few years is build momentum for each event to serve as a reason for us to re-set our ambitions for the trajectory of women’s sport.”It is a trajectory that will keep going upwards the better England do in this World Cup — the longer their players’ only ventures into the West End of London are to watch musicals like Wicked rather than visit nightclubs like the Rex Rooms.