The ICC has confirmed venues and dates for the tournament it had already taken away from its original host. India will stage the inaugural Women's Champions Trophy in Mumbai and Vadodara from February 14 to 28, 2027, after Sri Lanka was stripped of the hosting rights it had originally been awarded.
The ICC's decision to move the tournament away from Sri Lanka came in late August 2026, and the reasoning was administrative rather than cricketing. Sri Lanka Cricket has continued to be run by a government-appointed Transformation Committee rather than an elected board, which put the country in breach of the ICC's rules against government interference in a member board's affairs. Reports around the decision put Sri Lanka's financial loss from losing the hosting rights at upwards of $20 million — prize money, broadcast revenue and tourism spend that will now flow to India instead.
India's tournament will be staged across two grounds: Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai and the Baroda Cricket Association Stadium in Vadodara. Both venues host India's domestic and international women's cricket regularly, but neither has staged an event of this scale before, and preparations will now need to move quickly with under six months on the clock.
The tournament is a T20I event featuring six teams across 16 matches. Qualification is straightforward: India go in automatically as hosts, and the remaining five spots go to the top five sides in the ICC Women's T20I Team Rankings at the end of the 2026 Women's T20 World Cup. On rankings as they stand, that group is Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka — meaning Sri Lanka still gets to play in the tournament it lost the right to host.
Analysis: hosting the first edition of a new global ICC event is a meaningful addition to India's own calendar, and the timing sits neatly between the men's international season and the build-up to IPL 2027 — a window BCCI has previously used to fold in exactly this kind of standalone women's tournament. It also arrives with India's women's team fresh off defending their Asian Games title and competing hard at the ongoing Women's Asia Cup, giving Harmanpreet Kaur's side a home global event to build toward on the back of a genuinely packed year.
For Sri Lanka, the loss is a blunt reminder that ICC hosting rights are conditional on board governance, not just cricketing merit — a precedent other boards under political pressure will be watching closely.
The ICC has not yet released the full match schedule, ticketing details or the tournament's group/knockout structure. Ranking movements through the rest of the 2026 Women's T20 World Cup could still change which five teams join India, since the qualification cut-off is the end of that event rather than today's standings.
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Host venues, dates, format and Sri Lanka's removal as host are verified against the ICC's own announcement and same-day reporting, current as of September 4, 2026.
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