Pakistan will host the Women’s T20 World Cup in 2028, with the International Cricket Council confirming that the 12-team tournament will run from September 7 to October 1 of that year. The dates form part of a freshly updated calendar of major international events covering the years 2027 to 2031, which the ICC shared with its member boards after meetings in Dubai earlier this month. For Pakistan, the announcement settles months of expectation around one of the biggest women’s tournaments in the sport and gives the country’s cricket authorities a firm window around which to plan venues, logistics and preparations.
The women’s tournament will be followed almost immediately by the men’s equivalent. The Men’s T20 World Cup, featuring 20 teams, is scheduled for Australia and New Zealand from October 12 to November 12, 2028, beginning just 11 days after the women’s final. The tight turnaround between the two showpiece events underlines how crowded the revised calendar has become, and it will test the sport’s ability to keep two global audiences engaged back to back. Taken together, the updated schedule spans 12 men’s events, seven women’s events and five Under-19 tournaments, along with their qualifying competitions, making it one of the most comprehensive calendars the ICC has published in a single announcement.
The same update brought significant news for cricket’s return to the Olympic Games. The qualifying tournaments for the men’s and women’s events at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics have been moved from 2027 to January and February 2028, sharpening the focus for teams chasing a place at an event cricket has not featured in since 1900. The United States, as host nation, is eligible for direct qualification in both competitions, subject to meeting ranking requirements set by the ICC. Both American sides must have featured among the top 15 teams in the T20 international rankings at some point between June 30 and December 31, 2026, a window that is already open and closing fast.
On current form, the American men look well placed. Ranked 13th, they are on course to qualify directly, but the women’s side, sitting 19th, faces a much steeper climb and could miss out if it fails to lift its ranking in time. Should the United States women fall short of automatic qualification, their fate would instead be decided by the standings at the inaugural Women’s Champions Trophy in India in February 2027, a tournament that has suddenly acquired an extra layer of importance. Elsewhere in the Olympic picture, Australia, India, South Africa and Great Britain have already secured places in the women’s tournament, while the highest-ranked eligible men’s teams from Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania will qualify directly on the basis of the rankings at December 31, 2026. Both Olympic qualifying tournaments will feature eight teams each, although their venues have yet to be announced.
The ICC’s announcement also settled two other dates on the horizon. The 2029 World Test Championship final will be staged in England from June 8 to 12, preserving the tradition of the showpiece Test event being held on English soil, while the 2030 Men’s T20 World Cup, to be jointly hosted by England, Ireland and Scotland, has been shifted from June to July and August. Further details on venues and qualification arrangements across the calendar are still to follow, and member boards will now begin the detailed work of fitting domestic seasons around the international programme.
For Pakistan, the headline remains the women’s tournament itself. Hosting a 12-team World Cup is a significant undertaking and a considerable vote of confidence in the country’s ability to stage a major global event, and it will put the women’s game in Pakistan under a brighter spotlight than it has enjoyed before. The dates are now fixed and the countdown can begin in earnest, but the finer details that will shape the tournament, from the host cities to the qualification pathway, are still to be confirmed, and those announcements will determine whether 2028 becomes a landmark moment for cricket in the country or simply another entry in an increasingly busy global calendar.
