The host nations for every major ICC Women’s tournament between 2024-2027 have been confirmed during the ongoing ICC Annual Conference in Birmingham.
The final event of the cycle will be hosted by Sri Lanka, subject to them qualifying for the tournament. The inaugural edition of the Women’s ICC Champions Trophy will be based on the T20 format. It will be held in February 2027, with six teams competing for the trophy across 16 matches.
Ashley de Silva, Sri Lanka Cricket CEO, was delighted with Sri Lanka getting the hosting rights. “Sri Lanka Cricket gives utmost importance to the growth of women’s cricket; hence we consider, being bestowed the honour of hosting ICC Women’s T20 Champions Trophy 2027, is an excellent opportunity for us to be a part of the global growth program launched by the International Cricket Council to develop women’s cricket.”
Meanwhile Bangladesh will host the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024.
This will be the first time that Bangladesh will be hosting a major ICC women’s tournament and the second time it will be hosting a T20 World Cup. The tournament will be held between September-October, and comprise 10 teams playing 23 matches.
A year later, the action will move to India for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025. The tournament will be India’s fifth hosting an ICC Women’s tournament, with four tournaments so far being ICC Women’s World Cups. Eight teams will compete in the tournament, making up a total of 31 matches.
The next event on the calendar will be the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026, which will be hosted by England in June. This will be the first time the tournament will be held in England. The number of teams will also increase from 10 to 12, with a total of 33 matches to be played.
On being awarded the tournament, Claire Connor, interim ECB CEO, said: “We’re absolutely delighted that we’ve been selected to host the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026. We saw back in 2017 how hosting the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup captured people’s imagination and I’ll never forget watching Heather Knight lift the trophy on that magical day at a sold-out Lord’s.”
The tournament hosts were picked through a competitive bidding process. The process was overseen by a Board sub-committee chaired by Martin Snedden, along with Sourav Ganguly and Ricky Skerritt. The recommendations forwarded by them were then accepted by the ICC Board, after a thorough review of each bid.
