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The International Cricket Council (ICC) has officially confirmed that Pakistan will host the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2028, while India is set to play all its matches at a neutral venue under the agreed hosting arrangement.
The development was approved during the latest ICC Board meeting, where several important decisions related to women’s cricket were taken. As well as confirming the qualification pathway for the Women’s T20 World Cup 2028, the ICC also approved changes to the Women’s Champions Trophy schedule and introduced a new global schedule for emerging teams.
ICC confirms qualification pathway for Women’s T20 World Cup 2028
The ICC Board has approved the 12-team format for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2028, which will be hosted by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). As per the qualification structure, 10 teams will automatically qualify, including the top eight teams from the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026, the host nation if not already qualified, and the next highest-ranked teams in the ICC Women’s T20I Rankings as of July 6, 2026.
The remaining two spots will be decided through a 10-team Global Qualifier, supported by regional qualification events. The ICC also confirmed that the regional allocation for the qualification process will be finalized during its July meetings.
As part of the tripartite agreement signed last year between the PCB, ICC and BCCI, cricket teams from India and Pakistan will not travel to each other’s countries in the near future, not even for ICC events.
The original agreement was supposed to run until 2027, but with this announcement, it is likely to last even longer.
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ICC Women’s Champions Trophy finally launched
In the same meeting, the ICC decided to finalize the date of the ICC Women’s Champions Trophy. Like the men’s Champions Trophy, the women’s Champions Trophy has also been a long-standing target of the ICC.
The tournament was originally announced for 2021, with the inaugural edition planned for 2023, but did not take place. Last year the tournament was pushed back to 2026 before being finalized for 2027.
In July 2022, the ICC decided that Sri Lanka would host the first edition of the tournament. At the Ahmedabad meeting, it was decided that the tournament will now be held between February 14 and 28 in 2027, moving it up from the original June-July window.