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 3–20, will now be staged in Dubai and Sharjah.
The venue was changed following 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 by the army since, but widespread incidents of vandalism and looting, as well as acts of violence, have been reported from Bangladesh.
As a result, Australia, India, New Zealand and the United Kingdom (England and Scotland) had issued travel advisories to their citizens to not travel to Bangladesh.
ICC Chief Executive Geoff Allardice confirmed the move in a press release on Tuesday.
“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. 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," Allardice said.
"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," he added.
ICC Chair Greg Barclay confirmed to the Board that he will not stand for a third term and will step down from the post when his current tenure finishes 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, 2024, and if there is more than one candidate, an election will be held with the term of the new Chair commencing on December 1, 2024.