ICC drops Cox's Bazaar as World T20 venue

The slow pace of work to develop stadiums for next year's World Twenty20 Championships in Bangladesh today resulted in Cox's Bazaar being dropped as one of the venues for the March 16 to April 6 tournament.

Another doubtful venue Sylhet, which is scheduled to host the women's leg of the World T20, has been retained by the ICC.

The ICC announced that Sylhet would host all first-round fixtures of the Women's World T20 and a few group matches of the World T20, along with Mirpur and Chittagong.

The ICC's International Development (IDI) board had given both Sylhet and Cox's Bazaar an extension till November 30 to complete the development work after accepting Bangladesh Cricket Board's request. The original deadline for the completion of the stadiums was September 30.

According to the ICC rules, the venues need to be ready six months ahead of the tournament, including adequately meeting the accommodation requirements for the teams.

After two visits this year, the ICC venue inspection team had found construction work at both Sylhet and Cox's Bazaar well behind schedule for different reasons.

As many as 60 tournament matches (35 men's and 25 women's) will be played across Chittagong, Dhaka and Sylhet in the 22-day tournament.

As in the past, the women's semi-finals and final will be held on the same day as the men's semi-finals and final, and at the same venue.

India will open its campaign in World Twenty20 against arch-foes Pakistan.