ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 is to be organized on Bangladeshi soil in October this year. The current situation in this country is not good, hence the internal security team of the International Cricket Council (ICC) is keeping an eye on the anarchy spread in Bangladesh. According to the already decided schedule, Bangladesh is to host the Women’s T20 World Cup from October 3 to 20.
BCCI rejected the offer!
Considering the current situation, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) itself is not willing to organize this tournament in its country. BCB had proposed to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to host this tournament, but the Board of Control for Cricket in India refused. BCCI Secretary Jai Shah has revealed this.
Jay Shah said in an interview given to Times of India, ‘He had asked BCCI if he could host this event, but I flatly refused. We are still in the monsoon season and next year we are going to host the ODI Women’s World Cup. We do not want to give the impression that we want to host two consecutive World Cups.
There was a demonstration in Bangladesh demanding abolition of the controversial reservation system. The demonstration gradually became violent and the situation went out of control. Due to the violence spreading in Bangladesh, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had to resign and flee the country. However, after the formation of the interim government under the leadership of Mohammad Yunus, the situation in Bangladesh has become somewhat normal.
The ICC is currently adopting a wait-and-see policy on this issue. An ICC board member had said, ‘The ICC has an independent security monitoring system in all its member countries. The situation is being monitored closely, but there are seven weeks left for the tournament to start. In such a situation, it is too early to comment whether the tournament will be shifted from Bangladesh or not.
… then the Women’s T20 World Cup will be held here
The ICC has contingency plans for unavoidable situations and in this case Sri Lanka could be an option. Sri Lanka hosted the 2012 Men’s T20 World Cup there between September and October. It will be interesting to see whether the SENA countries (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) send their women’s teams to a country where the security situation may be weak.