Women's T20 World Cup moved from Bangladesh to UAE

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has confirmed that the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 will be moved from Bangladesh to the United Arab Emirates. The event, scheduled to take place from October 3 to 20, will now be staged in Dubai and Sharjah.

The shift was necessitated owing to the political turmoil in the Asian nation, with an interim government having taken charge following Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's resignation and fleeing. The decision to move out the tournament was inevitable given the unstable situation as civil unrest and fatalities continue to rise.

While Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka had emerged as potential options, UAE has been chosen keeping in mind the favourable weather conditions.

“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. “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.”

ICC Chair Greg Barclay confirmed to the Board that he will not stand for a third term and will step down when his current tenure concludes at the end of November. Barclay was appointed as the Independent ICC Chair in November 2020, before being re-elected in 2022.

Current directors are now required to put forward nominations for the next Chair by August 27 and if there is more than one candidate, an election will be held with the term of the new Chair commencing on December 1.