New Delhi: Ongoing repair work has resulted in Navi Mumbai’s DY Patil Stadium missing out on hosting matches for the inaugural Women’s Champions Trophy, set to be played in India from February 14 to 28, 2027.
Last week, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai and the Vadodara International Cricket Stadium as the venues for the marquee six-team T20 tournament, after the tournament was taken out of Sri Lanka due to government interference in its board’s administration.
But the omission of DY Patil Stadium came as a surprise given its status as a spiritual home for women’s cricket in the country. The privately-owned venue, situated within the DY Patil University campus, hosted the 2025 Women’s ODI World Cup final, where India beat South Africa to win its first-ever senior women’s ICC trophy. The venue also remains a primary host for Women’s Premier League (WPL) fixtures.
Multiple sources have told IANS that extensive repair work across the spectator stands will keep the facility out of action for the foreseeable future.
“The games were supposed to be held at the venue only, but because the repair work has started there, the venue owners themselves asked to give the games to some other stadium. It is going to take some 6-8 months or so to complete the repair work,” an official familiar with the situation told this news agency.
The official further added that hosting fixtures while construction is underway was practically unviable due to safety and logistical constraints. “To the best of our knowledge, the repair work is happening in the stands area, where they are adding washrooms for the spectators.
“Currently, the washrooms are only on the ground floor, and there are no washrooms on levels 1, 2, and 3. This was okay when the year was 2006, but now it’s a necessary requirement considering the venue is in such high demand for future games across all sports. Moreover, when the contractors are doing that part of the repair work, they need access from the front and sides also.
“This is continuous work, so one can’t really do both construction and stage high-profile games at the same time. In fact, apart from cricket also, as usual, so many people from across the country keep calling for the stadium to be available for this or that sporting event, and the same thing is being told to everyone. We are just hoping that all the repair work goes well so that the DY Patil Stadium can soon start hosting games again,” added the official.
Confirming the development, another official privy to the venue selection process told IANS, “We can tell that the DY Patil Stadium is undergoing renovation; hence it wasn’t put forward to be one of the venues for the inaugural Women’s Champions Trophy.”
Quizzed on why top metropolitan cities that have hosted women’s cricket games in the last few years weren’t available for hosting the Women’s Champions Trophy, the official said, “For the tier-1 centres constantly mentioned by many people, they weren’t available due to preparations for another big tournament at that time of year.”
From an Indian perspective, the Women’s Champions Trophy will be held at a time when the domestic and international calendar will be very hectic. India are supposed to host Australia for a five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series from January 21 to March 3.
Apart from that, a host of men’s and women’s domestic and age-group tournaments like the Ranji Trophy, Col CK Nayudu Trophy, Women’s Under-23 one-day trophy, and the Senior Women’s Inter-Zonal competition will also be played.
The Women’s Champions Trophy, originally scheduled for June 2027 before it was shifted to February 2027 by the ICC Board earlier this year, will feature the top six women’s T20I sides as per the July 6, 2026 cut-off date: Australia, England, India, New Zealand, South Africa, and Sri Lanka.
(IANS)
