The first-ever edition of the ICC Women's Champions Trophy will take place from February 14 to 28 in India next year, the International Cricket Council announced on Wednesday. According to a press release issued by the cricket governing body, all the matches in the inaugural edition of the six-team event will be played at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai and the Vadodara International Cricket Stadium in Vadodara.
The event was originally scheduled to take place in Sri Lanka, but has now been moved to India as Sri Lanka Cricket continues to make the requisite reforms outlined at the ICC's Annual Conference in July. The ICC, according to the press release, assessed three candidates to host the tournament - Bangladesh, India and South Africa - against their established host evaluation criteria before recommending India as the replacement host, a decision ratified by the ICC Board on September 1.
"The ICC Women's Champions Trophy marks an exciting new chapter for women's cricket," ICC Chairman Jay Shah said. "As the inaugural edition of the tournament, it will bring together the best teams in the world in an intense, high-quality competition, while creating even greater incentive for teams to continue rising through the rankings and competing for a place on the global stage. With a marquee ICC women's event now taking place every year, we have a significant opportunity to build greater momentum, provide more consistency and create a stronger rhythm for the women's game, its players and its fans around the world."
The event will consist of Australia, England, India, New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka as they seek to become the inaugural winners of the women's tournament. Pakistan will not be part of the Champions Trophy as it will be played in the T20I format with the six teams to compete in a round-robin league, with the top two sides advancing to the final on February 28. India are the current holders of the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup, while Australia are the ICC Women's T20 World Cup champions after having reclaimed the title this July in England.