After hosting the recently concluded Women’s World Cup at unheralded centers in the country, the International Cricket Council (ICC) is expected to take the upcoming 2026 T20 World Cup back to the Tier 1 centres. The global cricket body staged the WWC fixtures in Indore, Visakhapatnam, Guwahati and Navi Mumbai, while Pakistan played their matches in Colombo. Glaringly, Bengaluru looks set to miss out as one of the venues.TOI has learned that the ICC has zeroed down on five venues in India and two-three venues in Sri Lanka for the tournament.ICC sources said that Sri Lanka will get to host a semi-final in Colombo only if either Sri Lanka or Pakistan qualify for the semis. Colombo will remain a standby for the final in case Pakistan make it to the title clash. The last time India hosted a marquee ICC men’s event was in 2023 and the 50-over World Cup fixtures were played at Dharamsala, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru.
There hasn’t been a formal word from the ICC on the matter yet but it’s understood that the top brass is thinking on similar lines during the ongoing meet in Dubai.The Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru hasn’t received clearance from the authorities since the stampede post Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s IPL victory parade in June. The venue was replaced with Navi Mumbai for the recently-concluded ICC Women’s World Cup.Additionally, sources also said there is no certainty if Chinnaswamy will get to host IPL matches. “There are a lot of uncertainties regarding Chinnaswamy. It has to revisit its structure and the govt. authorities must be looking into it. That’s why it was not considered,” an ICC source told TOI. A decision and formal announcement is expected in the coming days and could well see the aforementioned venues hosting the tournament. Ahmedabad remains front-runner to host the title clash but as of now all options are being explored by the stakeholders.Colombo has been kept as a standby for the knockouts due to the agreement between the BCCI, PCB and ICC. The deal was reached between the two boards before the Champions Trophy that they will not play matches in the other country, even in the case of a multi-nation event. The agreement was reached when BCCI put its foot down to hold its matches in Dubai during the Champions Trophy even as Pakistan was the host.Twenty teams will features in the multi-nation event in India and Sri Lanka and it will be played in the same format as the 2024 event. The 20 teams will be placed into four different groups of five sides each before the Super Eights phase that will include the top two finishers from each group.The Super Eights will feature two groups of four sides, with the top two finishers from each group then progressing to the knockout semi-finals.It will be interesting to see if India and Pakistan will be grouped together for the marquee event. The ICC is yet to announce the official schedule but the tournament is likely to commence in February. A detailed announcement is expected in the coming days.
