ICC confirms relocation of Women's T20 World Cup 2024 to UAE from Bangladesh

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has decided to relocate the upcoming Women's T20 World Cup from Bangladesh to the UAE after a virtual board meeting on Tuesday. The ten-team tournament is scheduled to start on October 3, with England facing off against South Africa, and will conclude on October 20. The matches will be held at two venues in the UAE – Dubai and Sharjah.

Bangladesh remain in turmoil, despite the recent takeover by a new government and hence the members of the ICC board meeting agreed that the country cannot host the upcoming Women's T20 World Cup. The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) agreed with ICC's decision to move the tournament to the UAE, although they will remain the official host of the event.

The Bangladesh government did make a final effort to through the United Nations (UN) to host the tournament, but only in vain as countries like Australia, India, New Zealand and the United Kingdom had issued travel advisories to their citizens against travelling to Bangladesh.

"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," ICC Chief Executive Geoff 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. However, they will retain hosting rights. We look forward to taking an ICC global event to Bangladesh in the near future.

"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."

UAE to stage Women's T20 World Cup

Earlier this month, media reports indicated that India could emerge as one of the hosts for the Women's T20 World Cup amid the ICC assessing Bangladesh's conditions. However, last week, BCCI "categorically said no" to the ICC's offer, leaving UAE and Sri Lanka as possible alternatives.

"They [ICC] have asked us if we would conduct the World Cup. I have categorically said no," BCCI secretary Jay Shah told Times of India. "We're in the monsoon and on top of that we will host the Women's ODI World Cup next year. I don't want to give any kind of signals that I want to hold consecutive World Cups."

Later Zimbabwe too expressed their interest in hosting the tournament, but UAE emerged as the favourites, particularly due to its favourable weather and for its world-class facilities and infrastructures.

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