The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced that the 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup, originally set to be held in Bangladesh, will now take place in the United Arab Emirates. This change comes due to political unrest in Bangladesh, which led to the recent ousting of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The unrest, which saw over 450 fatalities primarily from police violence during protests, has led to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus taking on the role of interim leader.
ICC Chief Executive Geoff Allardice expressed regret that the tournament will not be held in Bangladesh, praising the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) for their efforts to keep the event in the country despite the challenging circumstances. He noted that travel advisories from several participating teams made it impractical to proceed with Bangladesh as the host.
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The 10-team tournament will now be held from October 3 to 20, 2024, across two venues in the UAE: Dubai and Sharjah. Despite the venue change, Bangladesh will retain the rights to host a future ICC global event. Australia, the dominant team in Women’s T20 cricket with six titles from the eight previous editions, including the last three consecutively, will compete in the tournament. The UAE had previously hosted the men’s T20 World Cup in 2021, alongside Oman, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
