'Our laundry laid out to dry on the rocks'

The women have played eight World Cups so far. Cricinfo asked former and current players what their lasting memories from each tournaments was. In the second of our series, we got Megan Lear, who played three World Cups and coached during a fourth, for her recollections of the second one.

1978, India
Megan Lear
This was my first World Cup with the England side since the previous time I played for Young England, and my first time in India. The most memorable part of this tournament was playing in front of crowds of 40,000 plus.

When we left our hotel, we would be followed for autographs.

India is certainly a country of many experiences, and on one occasion we had handed our cricket whites in to the hotel laundry and on a journey by coach to the practice ground we saw them all being washed in the local river and laid out to dry on the rocks!

The hospitality was fantastic under very difficult circumstances for their association, which was only a few years old.

My best personal cricket memory was of a warm-up at Eden Gardens when I scored 96 not out and hit two sixes and two fours off last over. When I came in to the pavilion it was as if I had won the FA Cup - everybody leant over to try to pat me on the back.