The inaugural ICC Women’s Champions Trophy is scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka from February 14 to 28, 2027. The six-team, Twenty20 International (T20I) tournament was originally planned for June-July but was subsequently rescheduled by the ICC. However, it has been learnt that the Showpiece ICC event faces the danger of moving out of Sri Lanka, if election to elect the office bearers at Cricket Board fails to be conducted soon.
The development comes after the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Annual Conference in Edinburgh from July 8–11, which was steered by Chairman Jay Shah. Key discussions during the four days conference focused on restructuring international cricket for the 2027-31 cycle and solidifying support for women’s cricket. It has reliably learnt that the ICC didn’t invite anyone from the CTC to attend the annual conference, not even as observer.
It has learnt that following the conference, it has once again emerged that the governing body aims for an immediate swift return to a fully elected, independent administration.Following high-level talks in Colombo involving ICC officials in May itself, the council had stressed the importance of timely elections to prevent prolonged government interference.
However, the government-appointed CTC, which is currently running the board, keeps insisting that reforms at SLC constitution and going through lengthy legislative and parliamentary processes requires significant time.
As the deadlock remains, It puts Women’s Champions Trophy 2027 in jeopardy, as ICC could show reluctance to go ahead with Sri Lanka as host, in the absence of a democratically elected board at Maitland Place, though the game’s governing body has not issued any official statement or final decision regarding hosting rights.
More than the reluctance, ICC’s policy could play spoilsport, as it generally freezes or withholds funding to national cricket boards when they are taken over by interim or government-appointed committees.
