ICC confirms UAE as new venue for Women's T20 World Cup 2024

The International Cricket Council (ICC), on Tuesday (August 20), announced that the upcoming Women's T20 World Cup 2024, set to be held in October 2024, has been moved from Bangladesh to the UAE. 

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) agreed to move the ninth edition of the tournament to the UAE, although will remain the official hosts. Despite efforts from the Bangladesh government to host the tournament amid the current situation, countries like India, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom had issued travel advisories to their citizens against travelling to Bangladesh.

Dubai and Sharjah have been decided as the two venues where the Women's T20 World Cup will take place from October 3 to October 20. 

ICC Chief Executive Geoff Allardice said in a statement, “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. 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.”

India were reported to emerge as one of the hosts for the Women's T20 World Cup earlier this month, but the BCCI "categorically said no" to the ICC's offer which left Sri Lanka and UAE as possible alternatives. Sri Lanka recently hosted the 2024 Women's Asia Cup, while India will host the ICC Women's ODI World Cup next year. 

Zimbabwe also expressed interest in hosting the event, but the UAE emerged as the favourites due to the world-class facilities and infrastructure. They previously co-hosted the Men's T20 World Cup alongside Oman back in 2021.