A CRICKET tournament featuring teams from "around the world" proved a huge hit in Bradford on Sunday.

The Inspirational Women's Charity Cricket tournament (IWCC) took place at Park Avenue cricket ground, just off Canterbury Avenue, and it proved to be a sell out.

Four teams took part, with Team Bradford, Team England, Team India and Team Pakistan fighting it out to be crowned champions.

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It was Pakistan who ended up as winners beating Cllr Vanda Greenwood's (Lab, Windhill and Wrose) England in the final.

Over £9,000 was raised and half of that money went to Pakistan's chosen charity, Yorkshire Children's Trust, while the rest went to Park Avenue, to enable young children to continue to access the sport and cricket pitches for free.

Each team had a chosen charity, with Mind in Bradford (Team Bradford), Bradford Womens’ Aid (Team England), Cancer Support Yorkshire (Team India) all still able to benefit from donations to the following GoFundMe page until the end of August:

www.gofundme.com/manage/iwcc-tournament-2019

Fatima Patel, who founded the tournament, said: "The groundsman told me it was the largest crowd there since the ground reopened.

"All the special guests were women and we had famous Pakistani actress Mehwish Hayat bowling to Naz Shah (Bradford West MP) before the start of the tournament.

"Lord Mayor Doreen Lee and the University of Bradford's Vice Chancellor Shirley Congdon were also there.

"Women don't get this kind of platform so everyone had lots of fun."

Ms Hayat added: "It is such a pleasure to be in Bradford and be at this amazing event. Cricket, inspirational women- what’s there not to like?

"Thank you to everyone here today, especially to Fatima Patel for inviting me and making this happen.

"It is so good to see so many families here; mums, dads and it especially pleases me to see so many children.

"Children are our future and we owe it to them to give them the best possible start in life."

Meanwhile, Naz Shah said: "Tournaments like these are important for the future of Bradford for the children of Bradford.

"To see our mothers, our sisters, wives coming out and participating is really breaking the stereotype, but also against the backdrop of the current situation in South Asia events like this show that here in Bradford there is great unity."