The International Cricket Council (ICC) has confirmed that the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 will be hosted by the UAE. The event will be staged in Dubai and Sharjah between October 03 and 20.
With the current situation in Bangladesh, the hosting of the event will be impossible, notably after travel advisories from different countries against visiting Bangladesh.
It was also the unanimous view of the Board members/ directors who attended the virtual meeting on August 20. Despite Bangladesh agreeing to the shift, they will continue to be the official host of the tournament.
The ICC Women’s #T20WorldCup 2024 has been moved from Bangladesh and will now be held in the United Arab Emirates.https://t.co/Pi3mUgvG7g
— ICC (@ICC) August 21, 2024
“I’d find it hard to fathom playing there [in Bangladesh] at the moment, as a human being, I feel like it might be the wrong thing to do,” Healy said. “(That would be) taking resources away from a country that is really struggling. They are needing everyone they can possibly get in there helping people that are dying.”
“There are obviously bigger factors at play than putting a cricket tournament on in Bangladesh at the moment … but I’ll leave it to the ICC to work out,” the Australia women’s team captain Alyssa Healy.
After BCCI refused the ICC’s offer to host the event, the ICC was left with limited options. Although Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka expressed their desire to host the tournament, UAE has been the choice for several reasons including the weather and time zone.
While speaking about moving the tournament sports governing body CEO 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.”
In 2021, the Men’s T20 World Cup was set to be hosted in India, but the matches were staged in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The women’s T20 World Cup will be the same case in which BCB will be the host with the matches staged in UAE.
Bangladesh has been grappled with domestic violence by students which made it impossible for the recent takeover government to bring in peace within the time. During the board meeting, it was suggested that hosting the event in a country that was inflicted by violence may not be appropriate.
“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,” concluded ICC CEO Geoff Allardice.
