India Hosts Inaugural ICC Women’s Champions Trophy 2027

India has secured another flagship event on cricket’s global calendar, winning the race to host the inaugural ICC Women’s Champions Trophy in 2027 after Sri Lanka was stripped of the tournament over governance concerns.

The new event, a six-team T20I competition, will run from February 14 to 28, 2027, and drops neatly into a growing cluster of major women’s tournaments on Indian soil. Sixteen matches, two cities, some of the biggest names in the women’s game – and a clear signal of where the sport’s power base is heading.

Mumbai and Vadodara Take Centre Stage

The ICC has locked in two venues: the historic Cricket Club of India (CCI) in Mumbai and the new Vadodara International Cricket Stadium.

All six teams will face each other in a round-robin league phase. No convoluted formats, no second chances. Every game counts. At the end of that slog, only the top two sides will walk out for the final.

The field is already set, based on the ICC Women’s T20I Team Rankings: India, Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka. No qualifiers. No late scrambles. Just six heavyweight sides thrown into a tight, unforgiving schedule.

Sri Lanka Lose Hosting Rights

This tournament was not always destined for India.

Sri Lanka had originally been awarded hosting rights, only to see them removed after an ICC host evaluation process. The key issue: Sri Lanka Cricket remains under a government-appointed committee, a situation the ICC views as breaching its rules on political or government interference in cricket administration.

Once the door opened, the contest to replace Sri Lanka was brisk. India emerged as the successful bidder ahead of rival proposals from Bangladesh and South Africa, underlining its growing clout as the default home for major global events.

A New Pillar in the Women’s Game

ICC Chairman Jay Shah framed the Champions Trophy as a landmark step for the women’s game, calling the 2027 edition “an exciting new chapter for women’s cricket” and stressing that it will gather “the best teams in the world in an intense, high-quality competition,” while sharpening the incentive to climb the rankings and claim a place on the global stage.

He also set out a broader ambition: a tighter, more predictable rhythm for women’s international cricket, built around a marquee ICC women’s event every year. The aim is clear – more momentum, more visibility, more consistency for players and fans.

Now the calendar has a new anchor point in February 2027. The question is no longer whether women’s cricket will get the stage it deserves. It’s which of these six sides will own it when the lights go up in Mumbai and Vadodara.