CHENNAI: After much anticipation regarding the change of venue considering the recent political situation in Bangladesh, ICC confirmed Tuesday that the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 has been shifted to United Arab Emirates. The ninth edition of the marquee event will go on from October 3 to 20 across the two venues in the UAE – Dubai and Sharjah.
Following the large-scale anti-government protests in Bangladesh, which led to former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fleeing the country earlier this month, many countries have announced travel advisories suggesting their citizens not to travel.
This includes the likes of the United Kingdom (England and Scotland), New Zealand and Australia, who have advised their citizens to avoid travelling to the country for now. ICC Chief Executive Geoff Allardice informed that the Bangladesh Cricket Board made all efforts to make sure the event stays on their home soil.
“It is a shame not to be hosting the Women’s T20 World Cup in Bangladesh as we know the BCB would have staged a memorable event,” Allardice said in a statement.“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,” he added.
With this, UAE, which hosted the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup after the COVID-19 Pandemic, would get the opportunity to host the women’s World Cup for the first time. While, Sri Lanka, which recently hosted the Women’s Asia Cup and Zimbabwe had offered to step in, the governing body opted to go with UAE.
Earlier BCCI Secretary Jay Shah had informed that India would not be interested in hosting the T20 tournament. “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,” Allardice further mentioned.
