Women's T20 World Cup 2024 Likely To Be Shifted as ICC Monitors Political Unrest in Bangladesh

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The Women's T20 World Cup 2024, which is scheduled to be held later this year, is reportedly set to be shifted as ICC continues to monitor the political unrest in Bangladesh, which forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee the country.

Bangladesh was all set to host the Women's T20 World Cup from October 3 to 20, but the latest turmoil in the country has got the ICC's internal security team to closely monitoring the situation.

According to a report in PTI, ICC is adopting a wait-and-watch approach before making any decisions about the tournament's location with India also in line to be a possible host of the tournament.

"The ICC has an independent security monitoring system across all its member nations. The situation is being monitored closely but with seven weeks left for the tournament to begin, it will be too early to comment whether the tournament will be shifted from Bangladesh," an ICC board member told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

The unrest in Bangladesh revolves around a controversial quota system that reserves 30 percent of jobs for families of veterans from the 1971 liberation war. The system has sparked fierce demonstrations across the country.

The Women's T20 World Cup 2024 is being slated to be staged at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka, and Sylhet International Cricket Stadium in Sylhet.

India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has "strongly advised Indian nationals against travelling to Bangladesh till further notice." The BCCI has always gone by government advice in these kind of situations.

So, if the unrest remains, ICC may have to shift the host location as the report also added that it will be interesting to see if other countries, especially SENA countries (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) send their teams for the T20 World Cup if Bangladesh remains the host.

There had been a similar situation of unrest in Sri Lanka in March 2022 when protesters stormed former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa's official residence citing corruption and inflation. But the Australian team travelled there for a bilateral series.

While India or UAE could be one of the options, the ICC could also shift the tournament to Sri Lanka, where the 2012 men's T20 World Cup was held in the September and October window.

According to a report in CricBuzz, any country that has favourable weather could be the most prioritized option to host the show-piece tournament should the situation not change in Bangladesh.

"All places with favourable weather will be in the mix if it becomes clear that we can't play in Bangladesh. That may or may not be the case," an ICC member in the know of the developments was quoted as saying by CricBuzz.