Women’s T20 World Cup moved from Bangladesh to UAE

DUBAI: The 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup will be moved from Bangladesh to the United Arab Emirates following civil unrest in the original host country.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) said in a statement that the tournament will now be staged at two venues in Dubai and Sharjah between 3-20 October. Bangladesh’s former prime minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled to India this month after weeks of deadly anti-government protests.

India previously refused to step in as hosts. ICC chief executive Geoff Allardice said: “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.”

England and Scotland have qualified for the ten-team tournament and have been drawn together in Group B. They had been due to play their opening fixtures, against South Africa and Bangladesh respectively, at Dhaka’s Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on 3 October, before facing one another in their final group match on 14 October.

The last edition of the tournament was held in South Africa in February 2023, when Australia won their sixth title with a 19-run victory over the hosts. More than 400 people were killed in Bangladesh during weeks of student-led demonstrations, which started as a protest against quotas in civil service jobs. A provisional administration, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, was put in place after Hasina fled.