ICC moves Women's T20 World Cup to UAE amidst unrest in Bangladesh

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday confirmed that the Women's T20 World Cup 2024 has been moved out of Bangladesh and will held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The highly-anticipated ninth edition of the tournament will now take place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) continuing to host the event.

The tournament will take place across the two venues in the UAE - Dubai and Sharjah - from 3 to 20 October.

In a statement, ICC Chief Executive Geoff Allardice expressed regret and said BCB would have staged a memorable event.

"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," Allardice was quoted by ICC as saying.

He added that the ICC will look forward to take an ICC event to Bangladesh in the future.

"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," he added.

"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.

The UAE, home to the ICC headquarters, has become a significant hub for cricket in recent years, hosting numerous qualifier tournaments as well as the ICC Men's T20 World Cup in 2021 alongside Oman.