LAHORE - Former captains of the men's teams have sent their respective national cricket teams good-luck messages ahead of the ICC Women's World Cup 2009 which gets underway in Australia next week. Eight teams - holder Australia, India, England, New Zealand, West Indies, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Pakistan - will go head to head from 7 March in a 16-day tournament during which 25 matches will be played. ESPN STAR Sports, ICC's official broadcaster, will broadcast all seven matches that will take place at North Sydney Oval, including the final. This will ensure that the event will be the most widely viewed yet, with the coverage to be aired in more than 100 countries. Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram, who was player of the final of the 1992 World Cup at the Melbourne Cricket Ground against England, said Pakistan's participation in the premier competition was evidence that the country's girls had the talent to compete against the best. "It is great to know that Pakistan women's cricket team has qualified for the World Cup. It clearly proves that the team has the talent that is required to line up with the best in women's cricket. "I want to see the Pakistan team go out there and give its best. It has nothing to lose as it is not amongst the top-ranked teams. This should lessen the pressure on the players and when you have nothing to lose and nothing to fear, you tend to give up your best," said Akram who took 414 Test and 502 ODI wickets during his career. Arjuna Ranatunga, who led Sri Lanka to World Cup glory in Lahore in 1996, advised his team to go match by match as the event was not about big names. "The World Cup is not about big names but about how you perform in the big arena. "Sri Lanka needs to take each game at a time and go stage by stage. Its first target should be to qualify for the Super Six stage. The players need to trust their talent, ability, prowess and need to believe that they are good enough to win the ICC Women's World Cup," said Ranatunga, a veteran of 93 Tests and 269 ODIs.