The 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup, originally scheduled to take place in Bangladesh in October, has been relocated to the United Arab Emirates, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced on Tuesday.
This decision comes in the wake of political unrest in Bangladesh, which led to the ousting of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled the country earlier this month after 15 years in power.
The 10-team tournament will now take place from October 3 to 20 across two venues in the UAE—Dubai and Sharjah.
In the weeks leading up to her August 5 removal, more than 450 people were killed in protests, most of them by police gunfire. Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus has since taken over as the interim leader.
“It is unfortunate that the Women’s T20 World Cup will not be held in Bangladesh, as we were confident that the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) would have delivered a remarkable event,” ICC chief executive Geoff Allardice said in a statement.
“I would like to thank the BCB team for exploring every option to host the event in Bangladesh, but travel advisories from the governments of several participating teams made it impossible.
“However, Bangladesh will retain the hosting rights, and we look forward to bringing an ICC global event to the country in the near future.”
Australia, who have dominated the competition by winning six of the eight previous editions, including the last three, will be among the favorites.
The UAE also hosted the men’s T20 World Cup in 2021, along with Oman, after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the event to be relocated from India.
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