Kotambi Stadium in Vadodara to Host Inaugural ICC Women’s Champions Trophy Matches in 2027

Vadodara: The Vadodara International Cricket Stadium, aka Kotambi Stadium, will host matches of the inaugural ICC Women’s Champions Trophy 2027, with the six-team tournament scheduled to be played in India from February 14 to 28 next year.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced that the tournament will be held across two venues, the Vadodara International Cricket Stadium and the Cricket Club of India (CCI) in Mumbai. The six participating teams are Australia, England, India, New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka.

The teams will compete in a round-robin league, with the top two sides advancing to the final, which will be played on February 28. The tournament will be played in the T20 format and will mark the first edition of the Women’s Champions Trophy.

The tournament was originally scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka but has been shifted to India as Sri Lanka Cricket continues to implement reforms outlined at the ICC Annual Conference in July.

The ICC assessed Bangladesh, India and South Africa as potential replacement hosts based on its established host evaluation criteria before recommending India. The decision was subsequently ratified by the ICC Board on September 2.

ICC Chairman Jay Shah described the inaugural tournament as a new chapter for women’s cricket, saying it would bring together the world’s leading teams and provide greater incentive for teams to improve their rankings and compete on the global stage.

India are the reigning ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup champions, while Australia are the current ICC Women’s T20 World Cup holders. The Champions Trophy will give the top women’s cricket teams another opportunity to compete for an ICC title early next year.

DeshGujarat