Women's T20 World Cup 2024: India return to play at Sharjah after 24 years

India players celebrate a SL wicket in Dubai on Wednesday. Pic/Getty Images

When Harmanpreet Kaur & Co take on Australia in the Women's T20 World Cup on Sunday, it will be the first time in 24 years that an Indian team will be playing an international match at the Sharjah stadium here. No Indian side, men or women, have played at the venue since October 2000 after the Indian government (in April 2001) barred the national team from playing at off-shore venues like Sharjah, Singapore and Toronto in the wake of match-fixing episodes that had rocked the cricket world then.

Sharjah lost its appeal as it was linked to an international betting syndicate. Also, for almost a decade-and-a-half, India refused to travel to the UAE to play any cricket. It was only after new stadiums came up in Dubai and Abu Dhabi that India ventured again into the UAE. The first time was for the 2014 IPL, held in the UAE because it clashed with the general elections back home, and for the 2018 T20 Asia Cup, which India won under the leadership of Rohit Sharma. There too, India played all their matches in Dubai and shunned Sharjah.

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Subsequently, like the 2014 edition, the entire 2020 IPL was conducted in the UAE in October due to the COVID-19 pandemic back home, and in 2021, the second leg of the IPL was completed here in September after it was disrupted in April by the second wave of the pandemic in India. Even when the 2021 T20 World Cup was shifted from India to the UAE, no India matches were held at Sharjah.

The Sharjah Stadium was the first cricket venue to come up in the Gulf region and holds the record of hosting the most number of ODI games at a single venue, 252 to be precise. From 1984 to October 2000, the Indian men's team played 72 ODIs here, but never a T20I game. So, now, with the Indian women slated to play a T20 match here on Sunday, will it also open the doors for the men's team to play at this venue in the near future?

It seems unlikely as the stadium has a capacity of only 16,000, while the ultra-modern Dubai stadium can accommodate 45,000 in two tiers. For financial reasons and top-class facilities, organisers will prefer to host matches in Dubai rather than Sharjah.