New Delhi: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday has announced the Future Tours Programme (FTP) 2025-2029 for the fourth ICC Women’s Championship. This cycle will determine the participants for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2029. The quadrennial event will expand to 11 teams in place of the current 10-team tournament.
Zimbabwe women’s cricket team will make its debut in the 2029 World Cup, marking a major step in the development of women’s cricket in the African region.
In the next Women’s Championship cycle, each team will compete against eight oppositions with four home and four away series to be observed. A total of 132 ODI matches will be played in a total of 44 series with each of the bilaterals featuring three ODI matches.
Which teams India will face in ICC Women’s Championship?
The Indian women’s cricket team will be hosting England, Australia, Bangladesh, and Zimbabwe. The Women in Blue will travel to New Zealand, South Africa, West Indies, and Ireland to play the away legs in this FTP cycle.
There will be four ICC events in the same FTP cycle starting with the 2025 World Cup in India. There will be ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 in England. There will be inaugural edition of the ICC Women’s Champions Trophy (50-over format) and then again in 2028 there will be another ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.
India will also be engaged in a tri-nation series along with England (hosts) and New Zealand just before the 2026 T20 World Cup. Ireland will also host Pakistan and West Indies in another tri-series. The four-year FTP cycle also mentioned that Sri Lanka (2027) and West Indies (2028).
No thorough planning for Test cricket
There is no further progress on Test matches under this cycle with Australia are said to have planned the most planned series where they will face against the likes of England, India and South Africa (each opponent twice) while the Women in Yellow will face the West Indies once.
The demand across the globe has been to increase the women’s Test matches to a five-day affair to determine a result. Additionally, the Test matches in a bilateral series should be increased rather than one-off Tests is another notable demand. There isn’t much clarity by the ICC on this note.
