Women’s T20 World Cup 2024: ICC Confirms UAE As New Venue

The Women’s T20 World Cup has been moved to the United Arab Emirates from Bangladesh. The International Cricket Council (ICC) made the move following civil unrest in Bangladesh. The ninth edition of the tournament will now be held in Dubai and Sharjah from October 3 to 20.

“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," said ICC Chief Executive Geoff Allardice in a statement. "However, they will retain hosting rights. We look forward to taking an ICC global event to Bangladesh in the near future," Geoff Allardice added. According to ESPNcricinfo, countries including Australia and New Zealand had issued travel advisories to their citizens against travelling to Bangladesh.

The United Arab Emirates, home to the ICC headquarters, is a major hub for cricket in recent years. The country has hosted various qualifier tournaments as well as the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in 2021 alongside Oman. ICC noted that the increasing prominence of UAE in the sport is reflected in the rise of both its men’s and women’s teams, each currently ranked 16th in the ICC T20I team rankings.