CHENNAI: With Sri Lanka being stripped of the hosting rights for the ICC Women's T20 Champions Trophy to be held in February next year, it remains to be seen when and where the inaugural edition of the tournament will happen.
Sri Lanka Cricket, the original host of the event, has been reportedly removed as hosts because of concerns over government involvement in the administration of the body. Since April 2026, SLC has been administered by a government-appointed Transformation Committee which also features former players like Kumar Sangakkara, Roshan Mahanama and Sidath Wettimuny. “Yes, it has been moved out of Sri Lanka,” SLC Transformation Committee Secretary Prakash Shaffter was quoted saying by the Sunday Times.
The International Cricket Council is yet to officially confirm the development. However, as things stand, the decision on who will host the event and when is likely to be taken at the next board meeting which is set to be held in Bali this November. Though it cannot be said with certainty, among the already qualified nations, India could be seen as a potential host to replace Sri Lanka.
What happened?
The six-team event, which was originally marked for June 2027 when the women's future tours programme was finalised in 2022, was moved to February 2027 by the ICC Board in June this year. The global governing body even announced that the tournament will be held from February 14 to 28.
The latest development comes a little over a month after ICC asked the SLC to conduct elections. "The ICC Board received an update on Sri Lanka Cricket and noted progress towards a revised Constitution. It reiterated the need for elections to be held as soon as possible and agreed that Sri Lanka Cricket would continue to be unable to be represented at ICC Board meetings for the time being," ICC had said after the AGM in July.
It is not the first time Sri Lanka were removed as hosts due to governance issues. Earlier, they lost the rights for the 2024 ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup following an ICC suspension of SLC in 2023. The tournament was later held in South Africa.
Will Sri Lanka qualify?
As per the ICC cut off dates, top five ranked teams apart from then originally designated hosts Sri Lanka had qualified for the event. Australia, England, India, New Zealand and South Africa were the other five teams, but now, with the tournament being moved out of Sri Lanka, it remains to be seen what happens to their direct qualification. If one of the five top-ranked countries were to be awarded the event, Sri Lanka will still make the cut as they were the six ranked team as of July 6, 2026, the original cut off date for qualification. If someone outside of the top five is given the rights, they might miss out.
Can BCCI host it?
There is no concrete confirmation on who will host the event at the moment. However, unless the ICC moves the tournament back to June, England can be ruled out as February will be off-season during winter. Australia have their calendar free in February 2027 with the men's team touring India for five Tests. New Zealand will be hosting Sri Lanka men in a multi-format series until the second week of the month (Feb 16) while South Africa will have SA20, their marquee T20 league, run till February 21, 2027.
From an Indian point of view, apart from hosting Australia in a five-Test series from January 21 till March 3, the Board of Control for Cricket in India will also be conducting multiple domestic age-group tournaments across men and women. From Ranji Trophy to Col CK Nayudu Trophy, women's U23 one-dayers, senior women's inter zonal, the BCCI will be hosting a number of domestic events throughout February. Though the BCCI has the venues and resources to host the event, as things stand, there is no information as to whether they will be awarded the rights.
The other option would be to provide it to a neutral venue such as the United Arab Emirates. Back in 2024, ICC did move the Women's T20 World Cup from Bangladesh to UAE due to internal conflicts in the country. However, at the time, Bangladesh retained the hosting rights and UAE did not make the cut.
