ICC moves women's T20 World Cup out of Bangladesh to the UAE

The Women's T20 World Cup 2024 has been moved out of Bangladesh and will now be held in the UAE.

"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."

The venue had to be changed by the ICC in the aftermath of the countrywide anti-government agitations in Bangladesh through July and early August, which ended when Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister, resigned and fled to India. An interim government has been put in place since, but incidents of vandalism and looting, as well as acts of violence, have been reported from Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh government had made last-ditch efforts through the United Nations (UN) to hold on to the World Cup hosting rights, but some countries, including Australia, India, New Zealand and the United Kingdom (England and Scotland) had issued travel advisories to their citizens against travelling to Bangladesh.

"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," Allardice said.

The UAE, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe emerged as options to stage the World Cup after the BCCI had rejected the ICC's offer to host it. The UAE had earlier hosted the 2021 men's T20 World Cup, along with Oman, when Covid-19 forced it out of India, in addition to staging a number of qualifier tournaments. Matches will be held in Dubai and Sharjah.

The ten-team tournament will run from October 3 to October 20.

Greg Barclay has confirmed to the ICC Board that he will step down as the ICC chairperson after his tenure ends in November.

Barclay was appointed as the Independent ICC chair in November 2020, before being re-elected unopposed in 2022.

Current directors are required to submit nominations for the next chair by August 27. If there are more than two candidates, an election will take place, with the new chair's term beginning on December 1.