The governing body shared impressive television broadcast, digital audience and attendance numbers from the tournament on Thursday, which it said have set "new benchmarks".

It was the second tournament to take place as a stand-alone event after the first five editions were held concurrently with the men's World T20.

"All of our data points over the last three years have shown us that fans are interested in women's cricket," ICC chief executive Manu Sawhney said in a statement reflecting on the numbers.

"There is an audience for women's cricket out there and rights holders along with broadcasters and brands are starting to realise that.

"There is a clear opportunity here for the sport and we are currently exploring various options to optimise value generation including the unbundling of women's rights."

According to ICC estimates, 70 per cent of the game's billion-plus fans want to see more women's cricket, which resulted in 1.1 billion video views for the tournament in Australia.

"We want to build a long-term sustainable foundation for the game and commercialisation is a central plank of that which is why we are exploring the unbundling of rights," Sawhney said.

Australia beat India in the March 8 final to win their fifth title at Melbourne Cricket Ground on International Women's Day.

Among the crowd of 86,174, a record for a women's sporting event in Australia, was trailblazing tennis great Billy Jean King.

Sawhney found inspiration from the American and her compatriots who began their campaign for equal prize money in tennis 50 years ago.

Australian Associated Press