BCCI has shortlisted five venues for the Women’s ODI World Cup it’s hosting later this year. © Getty The Duleep Trophy is set to return to inter-zonal format, played between six teams – North Zone, East Zone, West Zone, South Zone, Central Zone and North-East Zone. Cricbuzz understands that the 2025-26 edition of the tournament will be played in Bengaluru in September this year. Cricbuzz had earlier reported that a few state associations were not happy with the format of four teams, India A, B, C and D, comprising picks by the national selectors, although the tournament was star-studded with many internationals featuring in a domestic event after a long time. Women’s ODI World Cup venues shortlisted Meanwhile, Cricbuzz understands the 2025 Women’s World Cup, which is set to begin in the last week of September, will be played across five venues in the country – Indore, Visakhapatnam, Thiruvananthapuram, Guwahati and Mullanpur. The eight-team tournament is set to run from the last week of September to the first week of November. In case Pakistan, who is set to play the World Cup qualifiers at home next month, qualifies for the tournament, a decision could be taken on adding another venue for the tournament. This could potentially come at the back of the agreement between the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the Pakistan Cricket Board taken ahead of this year’s Champions Trophy to play all their ICC games, including the knockouts, in the 2024-27 cycle in neutral venues. In other news, apart from hosting its first-ever World Cup game, Guwahati is also set to host its maiden Test match when South Africa tour India later this year. The first Test of the series will be played in New Delhi followed by the second Test in Guwahati.
