It's time: History beckons on cricket's biggest stage

The last time a women's cricket match drew an 80,000-plus crowd – to Kolkata's cavernous Eden Gardens Stadium for the 1997 World Cup final – India's current captain Harmanpreet Kaur was yet to celebrate her ninth birthday.

And she had no idea that women played cricket at any meaningful level, let alone hold any interest in that celebrated showdown between Belinda Clark's ultimately victorious Australians and Maia Lewis's vanquished New Zealand.

Image Id: D74F2978EF6C4DAFA95D9530C94AD9FE Image Caption: A lap of honour for the triumphant Aussies back in '97 // Getty

The last time Australia's women's team played in the final of a major global tournament, their fan base at the game consisted of half a dozen family and friends among the 9,000 or so gathered at Antigua's Sir Vivian Richards Stadium.

And one of those was a relative of an Australia journalist, who had taken a week-long holiday in the Caribbean to see Meg Lanning's team win their fourth World T20 title in five attempts.

By any metric, the scale and the significance of tomorrow's women's T20 World Cup decider at the Melbourne Cricket Ground looms as life changing for the 22 players involved and for the nations they represent.

For India – where the best men's cricketers are venerated to near apotheosis – it's the opportunity to play in front of a live audience that has seemed previously unimaginable, even in a country with a population of around 1.4 billion.

As Kaur noted during her pre-game media conference at the MCG today, the biggest crowd she and her team have previously performed in front of was the "50 or 60,000 people" who packed Lord's for the final of the ICC's 50-over World Cup tournament in 2017, which India lost to England.

The fact that Lord's boasts a capacity of less than 30,000 provides a graphic illustration of the psychological affect a full-house can wield upon players in the middle.

"That was the first time we played when the house was full," Kaur said, mindful of the possibility the MCG might host more than 91,000 people, a record attendance for a standalone women's sporting event.

"So tomorrow is a big day, I hope we see many in the crowd and many Indian supporters there.

"Everybody knows there will be a lot of noise in the stadium, and we need to keep an eye on each other.

"I think it's just about being there, enjoying the moment and giving your best."

Image Id: 3BC358CACF91484DBA6B1153DBD7DD62 Image Caption: The two captains with the trophy in Yarra Park today

For Australia, it's the culmination of a 15-month journey since their previous triumph in Antigua to the final they had been expected to reach, with the accompanying hopes of setting a new attendance benchmark threatening to weigh them down during an, at times, faltering campaign.

Lanning acknowledged as much today when she conceded that, along with the excitement that comes with participation in the title decider of a major global tournament, there was an overwhelming sense of relief within her team that the long-coveted day was about to dawn.

"This build-up to the game is something I've not experienced before and I'm quite glad that the final's here tomorrow and we can say we're involved in it," Lanning said today.

"When I first saw this game was at the MCG and they were hoping for a big crowd, I just wanted to be involved.

"We’ve spoken as a group about the crowd and really embracing that.

"It is going to be a different game, we haven’t played in front of a crowd this big before.

"That’s fine, we just need to make sure we deal with that the best we can – enjoy it, smile about what we are experiencing, and how lucky we are to be in the position we are to play in the game."

The fact that Lanning's team has won its way through the trophy decider, having dropped the first game of the tournament to India and then fighting some indifferent form and the threat of being bundled out due to wet weather last Thursday, is a significant achievement in itself.

Australia has played host to four previous World Cup tournaments – two each for men's and women's competitions, and all of them of the 50-over format – and only twice have the home team managed to reach the ultimate game.

Portentously, both of those occasions – the women's tournament of 1988 and the men's equivalent in 2015 – saw Australia lift the trophy following victories in the final at the MCG.

The stand-out moment from that men's triumph four years ago was fast bowler Mitchell Starc rattling the stumps of New Zealand's talismanic captain Brendon McCullum in the first over of the contest, bringing the crowd of 93,013 to their feet.

Image Id: 823AF86142EF4E6393059556B11DFF38 Image Caption: Unforgettable // Getty

Tomorrow, Starc will be among the throng watching on, having returned early from the Australia men's team's Qantas ODI tour of South Africa to support his wife, Alyssa Healy who will open the batting and keep wicket for the home team.

"It’s nice to see Mitch heading back, and he’s missing an international game which might not happen too often," Lanning said today.

"It’s great he’s here to support us, and Alyssa.

"The men’s team have been really supportive of our group for a long time and certainly over the last few weeks we’ve been getting a lot of messages from them, so it's nice to have their support as well."

Also among the crowd tomorrow will be James Sutherland, Cricket Australia's former boss who was at the helm of the organisation when the planning for the current tournament, and for the men's T20 World Cup that follows in October, begun.

He will be there not only to witness first-hand the culmination of years of planning, but mostly to cheer on his 18-year-old daughter, Annabel, whose seam bowling skills have seen her included in Australia's starting XI for three of the preceding matches of this World Cup campaign.

Remarkably, Annabel Sutherland (should she play) will not be the youngest participant in tomorrow's final.

India's blazing opener Shafali Verma, who now sits atop the world rankings as the women's game's pre-eminent batter in T20 cricket, turned 16 just weeks before her team's tournament opener against Australia.

Should she see India home in tomorrow's final, she will replace Pakistan men's trio Aaqib Javed (the 1992 ODI World Cup), Mohammad Amir and Shahzaib Hasan (2009 T20 World Cup) – all aged 19 – as the youngest players to have earned a winner's medal in an international cricket tournament.

"She's very excited," said Kaur of her teenage batting sensation, one of a majority of India's players who had not experienced playing in Australia prior to their tour beginning in January.

'She's someone who has always enjoyed playing cricket, that's what she's shown us in the (group) games.

"And I'm sure tomorrow she'll have a great time again, and she will get all the runs that we're expecting from her."

Amid all the tension and anticipation that tomorrow's final brings, perhaps it will be the nerveless naivety of a 16-year-old that will best adapt to the pressure and the scrutiny of a World Cup decider.

T20 Women's World Cup Final

Australia squad: Meg Lanning (c), Rachael Haynes (vc), Erin Burns, Nicola Carey, Ashleigh Gardner, Alyssa Healy (wk), Jess Jonassen, Delissa Kimmince, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Molly Strano, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Wareham.

India squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harleen Deol, Veda Krishnamurthy, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Deepti Sharma, Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Poonam Yadav, Radha Yadav, Arundhati Reddy, Rajeshwari Gaekwad, Richa Ghosh

Key timings - March 8

11:00am - 6:00pm: Fanzone in Yarra Park

3:30pm: Gates open at the MCG

5:00pm: Fans encouraged to ARRIVE EARLY

5:30pm: Katy Perry pre-match performance

6:00pm: Match starts

Post-match: Trophy presentation and Katy Perry concert

Broadcast: Fans in Australia can watch live on Foxtel, Kayo Sports and 9Gem