ICC Women’s T20 World Cup shifted to UAE from Bangladesh

Dubai: The 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup will now be held in the UAE. The International Cricket Council decided to move the tournament to be held in October from Bangladesh due to the unrest in the country.

Recently Bangladesh faced a severe political crisis after prime minister Sheikh Hasina was thrown out of power after 15 years. More than 450 people were killed in the weeks of protests leading up to her ouster earlier this month.

In a media release, ICC Chief Executive Geoff Allardice said: “It is a shame not to be hosting the Women’s T20 World Cup in Bangladesh as we know the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) would have staged a memorable event.

“I would like to thank the team at the BCB for exploring all avenues to try and enable the event to be hosted in Bangladesh, but travel advisories from the governments of a number of the participating teams meant that wasn’t feasible. However, they will retain hosting rights. We look forward to taking an ICC global event to Bangladesh in the near future,” he added.

The tournament will be staged from October 3 to 20 in Dubai and Sharjah.

“I’d also like to thank the Emirates Cricket Board for stepping in to host on behalf of the BCB and Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe for their generous offers of support, and we look forward to seeing ICC global events in both of those countries in 2026.”

The UAE, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe were the countries considered to stage the World Cup after the BCCI had rejected the ICC’s offer to host it. The UAE had earlier hosted the 2021 men’s T20 World Cup, along with Oman, when Covid-19 forced it out of India, in addition to staging a number of qualifier tournaments.

Greg Barclay has confirmed to the ICC Board that he will step down as the ICC chairperson after his tenure ends in November.

Barclay was appointed as the Independent ICC chair in November 2020, before being re-elected unopposed in 2022.

Current directors are required to submit nominations for the next chair by August 27. If there are more than two candidates, an election will take place, with the new chair’s term beginning on December 1.