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Bangladesh was due to host the Women’s T20 World Cup for the second time in October.
However, the recent political and civil unrest in the country raised serious safety doubts about staging a major international tournament in such circumstances, to the extent that the ICC has been forced to change its mind.
Instead, the UAE will step in, as they have done numerous times before, offering a safe venue in established venues, although in differing conditions from those they might have encountered in Bangladesh.
They had begged for more time for the situation to stabilise. Still, the risks were too great, and the governments of some participating countries, such as India, Australia, and England, advised their citizens against travelling to the country.
As compensation, the ICC has been told that it retains hosting rights and promises to bring another global tournament to them in the future.
First staged in 2009, this year’s edition is scheduled to be the ninth edition of the tournament, which Australia has dominated. They have won it six times and are the defending champions, with the tournament most recently staged in South Africa last year.
England and the West Indies are the only other teams to have won it.
Bangladesh was due to host it for the second time, having previously staged it in 2014, although they have now been stripped of that right.
Ten teams are due to contest the World Cup this year, the last time such a number will be involved.
In two years, when it will be staged in England, the number will increase to 12, and the intention is to expand it to 16 teams by 2030.
Bangladesh qualified for the tournament by right as hosts, and they have been joined by the top six finishers from the last World Cup: Australia, England, India, South Africa, New Zealand, and the West Indies.
Pakistan has been allocated a place based on their ICC T20I rankings, while Scotland and Sri Lanka have taken the remaining two places. Sri Lanka earned its spot after coming through Global Qualifiers.
The ten teams were initially placed into two groups of five.
Group A comprises Australia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand, while Group B comprises England, South Africa, Bangladesh, the West Indies, and Scotland.
All teams will play the others in their group on a round-robin basis, with the two teams in each group progressing through to the knock-out stages, which will consist of two semi-finals and the final itself.
The tournament is currently scheduled to last from 3rd to 20th October.
Bangladesh had been governed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for 15 years, but her government had become increasingly unpopular after passing legislation that introduced job quotas for sought-after civil service jobs, which favoured her supporters.
A wave of unrest rocked the country, and several people died in the violence that ensued, whilst many others were injured.
Despite attempts to crack down on the protesters, Hasina eventually gave in to the inevitable, resigned and fled the country to India.
An interim government has since taken charge, and a nationwide curfew has been introduced, but the situation remains uncertain.
Cricket has not been immune from the broader events.
Former Bangladesh team captain Mashrafe Mortaza, who went on to become a junior government minister, saw his house burnt down by protesters. However, neither he nor his family were injured in the incident.
The Bangladesh team, which was due to visit Pakistan for a test series, was invited to travel early to their neighbours so they could adequately practice in safe conditions.
Speculation about the wisdom of staging the tournament in Bangladesh at this time led to suggestions of several alternative venues, including India, Sri Lanka, and Zimbabwe.
However, Jay Shah, secretary of the BCCI, emphatically ruled India out of contention.
He pointed out that the tournament coincided with the monsoon season in India, and there was no guarantee that matches would be finished.
He also noted that India was already co-hosting the 2026 World Cup—a 50-over-a-side version—with Sri Lanka and did not have the bandwidth to host two major tournaments in consecutive years.
Having stepped into the breach once before, Sri Lanka was a viable option. In 2023, Pakistan was due to host the Twenty20 Asia Cup, but when India refused to travel there, citing the political and diplomatic tensions between the two countries, months of tense negotiations flowed.
In the end, a hybrid model was adopted, with Pakistan hosting most of the games, but those involving India and the knock-out games took place in Sri Lanka.
However, like India, October is also the rainy season in Sri Lanka and, therefore, not the optimal time to stage an event of this magnitude.
Although the UAE is only an associate member of the ICC, it has become a major cricket venue, with three grounds in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah capable of staging matches.
The venues are relatively close to each other in the distance, although journey times between them can be long because of the notorious Emirates’ traffic congestion, particularly during rush hour.
It also has a large immigrant population from South Asia, which comprises a ready-made audience for cricket.
Meanwhile, it is a major international airline hub with enough accommodation to handle the visitors expected to fly in for the tournament.
This is by no means the first time it has also staged a major cricket tournament.
In 2021, when India was scheduled to host the T20I World Cup, the COVID-19 pandemic saw the tournament relocated to the Middle East. Oman staged several matches, but the bulk were played in the UAE.
For a decade, Pakistan played their home matches there, with other countries refusing to tour there in the wake of the 2009 terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore.
Similarly, Afghanistan played several home games there after the Taliban takeover of their home country, making it a taboo place to visit.
It also has a long association with the Indian Premier League, beginning in 2014. The tournament was relocated to the UAE when the IPL clashed with parliamentary elections that year.
So good was the experience that, in 2020, when the Covid pandemic threatened to cancel the entire season, the UAE offered a solution.
The following year, although the tournament began in India, numerous breaches of bio-security bubbles meant to protect teams and support personnel from contact with the outside world saw it stopped, only to be played to resumption in the UAE a few months later.
Meanwhile, IL T20 has established itself as one of the major international franchise competitions.
Shifting the tournament in this fashion means that players will need to get used to different conditions. Whereas pitches in Bangladesh often offer some turn and bite, those in the USAE tend to be slower, with low bounce. The dew factor also needs to be taken into account, and traditionally, it favours teams that bat first.
Nevertheless, security is not expected to be an issue, which is more than can be said for Bangladesh now.
Whatever happens, the Australians will probably win – they usually do!
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