Sri Lanka Loses Hosting Rights for 2027 Women’s Champions Trophy

The Sri Lankan team is no longer going to host the first ICC Women’s Champions Trophy 2027, making yet another dent in the credibility of its cricket management. The tournament, comprising six teams, was originally slated to take place from February 14 to 28, 2027, but the ICC has now made up its mind to host it elsewhere. No announcement about the new host has been made as of yet. This comes in the wake of a controversy involving the ICC and the Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC).

Why Were the Hosting Rights Taken Away from Sri Lanka?

This recent development has been tied to worries about the autonomy of Sri Lanka Cricket. In 2023-24, the ICC had already banned SLC for a few months due to political influence on the organisation.

The controversy resulted from a long-standing feud between the cricket body and the Sri Lankan government and concern related corruption and mismanagement.

During this period, Sri Lanka also lost the right to host the 2024 Men’s Under-19 World Cup, which had to be moved to South Africa.

In April 2026, the Sri Lankan government took temporary charge of the cricket body and created a Transformation Committee to solve issues in the sport.

What Does ICC Seeking?

ICC had been demanding that the country needs to have a democratically elected cricket board which operates without government interference. Members of the Transformation Committee in Sri Lanka are also prohibited from attending the ICC Board meetings.

The functioning of SLC through the committee is thus the issue of dispute between the two parties. The latest hosting issue shows that the governance issue still matters for Sri Lankan cricket in practice.

What Will Become of the 2027 Tournament?

Six teams’ Women’s Champions Trophy will be relocated out of Sri Lanka. ICC has yet to decide the new host; the issue should be discussed at the next Board meeting of the ICC.

The relocation of the event might influence Sri Lanka’s qualification to it too. Currently, Sri Lanka is ranked sixth in the world, and it was expected that the original criteria for qualification would include those teams as well as the host country.