Update, September 2: The ICC has confirmed the tournament moves to India — and Sri Lanka keeps its place in the field. Jump to the update

Sri Lanka has lost the hosting rights to the inaugural ICC Women’s Champions Trophy, with the International Cricket Council moving the tournament to another country over the continuing dispute about government involvement in the running of Sri Lanka Cricket.

Prakash Schaffter, secretary of the government-appointed committee now administering SLC, confirmed that the ICC had formally notified the committee that the event would be played elsewhere, Daily Mirror reported. Hiru News carried the same confirmation, adding that the replacement venue has not been settled and that a new host is expected to be named at the next ICC Board meeting.

The six-team Twenty20 International tournament was scheduled for February 14 to 28, 2027, with Australia, England, India, New Zealand, South Africa and the host nation expected to make up the field. LankaNewz reported the ICC Board’s decision to shift the tournament from a June–July window into that February slot on June 1 — at which point Sri Lanka was still the host.

Sri Lanka’s own place in the field is now in question

The most consequential detail appears only in Hiru’s account. The inaugural edition is expected to be contested by the host nation plus the five highest-ranked teams. Hiru reports that Sri Lanka currently sits sixth, which means that losing the hosting slot could also cost the team automatic entry — unless the replacement host is itself ranked outside the top six.

That is a separate measure from the individual rankings, where captain Chamari Athapaththu reached a career-best sixth place among T20I batters in early August.

Hiru also reports that the ICC has barred SLC representatives from attending its board meetings since the committee took over, and that the lost tournament is projected to cost SLC and the country revenue from visiting teams, officials, broadcasters, spectators and tourism. Daily Mirror carried none of this.

How the board came under government control

The tournament was awarded under the previous SLC administration headed by Shammi Silva. Silva and the entire Executive Committee resigned in late April, after which Sports Minister Sunil Kumara Gamage placed the board under his ministry and appointed a nine-member committee chaired by former MP Eran Wickramaratne. Schaffter was named to that committee.

The ICC has held throughout that member boards must be free of government control, and pressed for a return to an elected administration. An ICC delegation including a senior BCCI official visited Colombo in May, and the governance question was still on the ICC Board’s agenda at its June meeting.

Sri Lanka lost hosting rights once before on the same grounds: the 2024 Under-19 World Cup was moved to South Africa after the ICC suspended SLC in 2023 over government interference.

What had not been established as of August 30

The ICC had issued no public statement confirming the decision or naming a replacement host. Hiru attributed the report to a weekend newspaper and put a question mark on its own headline; Daily Mirror stated it as fact. Neither outlet gave a figure for the projected revenue loss.

The two outlets also name the committee differently — Daily Mirror calls it the Cricket Transition Committee, while Hiru, the Sports Ministry and SLC’s own announcements have consistently called it the Cricket Transformation Committee.

SLC said on Monday that nothing had been decided

Sri Lanka Cricket publicly disputed the reports. Prakash Schaffter told a press conference that the ICC had not moved the tournament or handed it to another country, Daily Mirror reported on September 1 under the headline “Sri Lanka still the host”.

“We are continuing to talk to the ICC to host the (women’s) Champions Trophy. The ICC has been very supportive of us and I am hopeful that we will be able to demonstrate to them over the next one month or two months the steps that are being taken and that they (ICC) will be persuaded to play it here,” he said.

“The ICC has not categorically told us that they are in fact moving it. As of now no other venue has been agreed upon as yet.”

Committee head Eran Wickramaratne — rendered “Wickremaratne” in this Daily Mirror report — said the new SLC constitution, which he said bars vote rigging and vote buying by prospective office bearers and emphasises transparency, was with the legal draftsman ahead of presentation to Parliament. “We are not backing down. We inherited a festering problem that we will correct with the new Constitution,” he said. That drafting stage matches what LankaNewz reported on August 31.

Update, September 2: the ICC names India, and Sri Lanka stays in the field

The ICC confirmed on Wednesday that the tournament moves to India, Hiru News and Daily Mirror reported, both carrying the ICC’s release. The dates are unchanged: February 14 to 28, 2027.

All matches will be played at two venues — the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai and the Vadodara International Cricket Stadium in Vadodara.

The ICC said it assessed three candidates — Bangladesh, India and South Africa — against its established host evaluation criteria before recommending India. The decision was ratified by the ICC Board on 1 September, and the governing body repeated that the event was moved “as Sri Lanka Cricket continues to make the requisite reforms outlined at the ICC’s Annual Conference in July”.

That timing matters. The ICC Board ratified the move on the same day Daily Mirror published Schaffter’s statement that no other venue had been agreed and that he hoped to persuade the ICC over the following month or two. SLC’s public position was overtaken within about twenty-four hours. Neither outlet reported whether SLC had been notified of the ratification before Schaffter spoke.

Sri Lanka keeps its place

The most important detail for Sri Lanka corrects what this article flagged as a risk on August 30. The ICC named the six-team field as Australia, England, India, New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka — so Sri Lanka retains automatic entry despite losing the hosting slot.

The concern set out above, drawn from Hiru’s August 30 report, was that the field would be the host plus the five highest-ranked sides, and that Sri Lanka in sixth place would drop out once a higher-ranked country took the host slot. That has not happened. Neither outlet explained how the qualification was settled, so it is not clear whether the field was fixed before the move or whether Sri Lanka was retained separately.

The tournament will be played as a round-robin league in the T20I format, with the top two sides advancing to the final on 28 February.

ICC Chairman Jay Shah said the inaugural edition “marks an exciting new chapter for women’s cricket” and would “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,” he said.

India go into the tournament as holders of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup; Australia are the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup champions, having reclaimed that title in England in July.

Still not established as of September 2

The ICC’s release does not mention Sri Lanka’s governance position beyond the single reform clause. Neither report says whether Sri Lanka can regain hosting rights for a future edition, nor whether the ICC has set any deadline or benchmark for the reforms it is waiting on. SLC had issued no response to the confirmation at the time of writing.

Update, September 3: the loss is put at US$20 million, and the ICC’s warning came two months ago

Daily Mirror has quantified the cost and reported that SLC was warned it was coming, in a report published on Thursday.

Sri Lanka could lose at least US$20 million in potential revenue as a result of the tournament moving to India, the paper reported, citing sources. That is the first figure any outlet has put on the loss — the revenue question Hiru raised on August 30 had gone unquantified for four days.

The figure is attributed to sources rather than to SLC, the Sports Ministry or the ICC, and Daily Mirror does not break it down. It describes the loss as arising from tourism, economic activity and international exposure, so the US$20 million appears to be a whole-of-country estimate rather than a hosting fee foregone by the board. No official costing has been published.

SLC was told in July what would happen

The more consequential part of the report is a timeline. Daily Mirror says it “exclusively learns” that at a meeting two months ago, the ICC told Transformation Committee secretary Prakash Schaffter that Sri Lanka would lose the hosting rights if SLC did not end political interference and hold the overdue elections.

Schaffter conveyed the warning to the interim administration, the paper reports. But the Sports Ministry and President Anura Kumara Dissanayake were not informed until very recently, according to its sources.

That reframes the sequence set out above. Schaffter’s September 1 statement that “the ICC has not categorically told us that they are in fact moving it” was made by someone who, on this account, had been told two months earlier exactly what would trigger the move. Daily Mirror notes he had earlier said the ICC initially indicated Sri Lanka would host and that preparations had begun, before acknowledging the ICC was considering alternative venues.

LankaNewz has not independently verified the Daily Mirror’s account of the July meeting or the claim that the Ministry and the President were kept out of the loop, and neither Schaffter, the Transformation Committee, the Sports Ministry nor the President’s office had responded at the time of writing.

The precedent, and where the constitution stands

Daily Mirror places the decision alongside the 2024 Men’s Under-19 World Cup, moved to South Africa in 2023 after SLC was suspended over government interference — the second ICC event lost on the same grounds.

It confirms the ICC noted progress towards a revised constitution in July but pressed for elections “as soon as possible”, and that SLC remains unable to be represented at ICC Board meetings while the governance issues are unresolved. The Transformation Committee has completed a draft constitution and handed it to the Sports Minister; it must clear the required legal process before reaching Parliament, which matches what LankaNewz reported on August 31.

Still unresolved

No outlet has published an official revenue figure or said who produced the US$20 million estimate. None reports whether the President or the Sports Minister disputes being kept uninformed, whether the ICC has set a date for the elections it wants, or whether Sri Lanka may bid for a future edition.

Update, September 3: SLC responds, welcoming the team’s qualification

Sri Lanka Cricket has issued its first public response to the move, and it is a positive one — about the team rather than the hosting.

SLC welcomed the automatic qualification of the Sri Lanka Women’s National Team for the 2027 tournament, NewsFirst reported. While Sri Lanka will not host the event, the board said the national women’s team has secured direct qualification based on its standing in the current qualification process.

That is the closest any account has come to explaining how the place was settled — a question this article flagged as unanswered on September 2 — though “the current qualification process” is not defined and no ranking or cut-off is given.

SLC said it would provide the support and resources needed to prepare the team, and that it will continue working with the ICC, the host nation and other stakeholders to ensure the inaugural edition is staged successfully. The statement makes no reference to the governance dispute, the lost hosting rights, the reforms the ICC is waiting on, or the US$20 million figure Daily Mirror published the same day.

NewsFirst separately carried the hosting confirmation, matching the ICC release already reported here: February 14 to 28 at the Cricket Club of India and the Vadodara International Cricket Stadium, Bangladesh and South Africa evaluated alongside India, and ratification by the ICC Board on September 1.

Still unresolved

SLC has not commented on losing the hosting rights themselves, on Daily Mirror’s account of the July warning, or on the claim that the Sports Ministry and the President were not informed until recently. No official has disputed or confirmed the US$20 million estimate.

Sources