Bristol, Southampton venues refurbished for Women’s T20 WC: Tournament director

New Delhi, June 11 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Bristol County Ground and the Utilita Bowl in Southampton have undergone significant infrastructure refurbishments ahead of the 2026 ICC Women's T20 World Cup, with tournament director Beth Barrett-Wild saying that they were done as part of a broader wave of facility investment triggered by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) hosting the global event from June 12 to July 5.

"When you host a World Cup, it gives you an opportunity to invest in sort of capital projects and initiatives. So we've got seven incredible host venues for the tournament this summer in six cities. At least three of those embarked on significant facility developments. The Bristol County grounds down in Gloucestershire - that's a multi-million pounds changing room refurbishment that they've undergone, which has been instigated by them being a Women's T20 World Cup host venue to meet those minimum requirements.

“So they're going to have incredible facilities, and I haven't been down to see them yet. I'm due to go in a couple of weeks to watch some of the games. But I think the changing facilities that they're going to have now are just going to be next level. I think they've got four facilities that they've invested in and a three million pounds project that they've embarked on.

“Those four facilities are again, because it means that they can host double headers really brilliantly. So double headers have been incredibly successful here through The Hundreds and we're going to see a few double headers actually through the tournament as well and Bristol are hosting some of those with four world-class changing facilities being put into place. Similarly, PMOA (Players and Match Officials area) refurbishments were done at the Hampshire Bowl on the South Coast in Southampton and they've done a lot of work there,” Beth told IANS in an exclusive conversation on Thursday.

Lancashire has also invested into Old Trafford, which had 63 female toilets in 2025 and that number will be 114 for the Women’s T20 World Cup. “They've done various things, both within Old Trafford, but then also in terms of some of their ancillary facilities. So they've got a really amazing development called Farrington, which is almost their second venue, and isn't directly linked to the World Cup.

“But I guess it's an outcome of the growth of the women's game that they've recognised that they need a world-class second facility now that can accommodate both men's and women's cricket. But that's kind of, I guess, been born out of just the growth over a period of time. Then there's some just more kind of in the moment facility elements that we're looking at – like the fan profile that we're gonna see coming through," she added.

Aside from the venue, the organisers also had to navigate a complex set of logistical challenges, including disruptions to global shipping and travel arising from the West Asia crisis. Beth revealed the ECB and ICC had maintained a joint risk register and contingency planning process throughout, and confirmed that all 12 competing nations had arrived without any major incident in the way.

"With that, it's obviously very unfortunate and sad that that is happening. We had been alert to it from the outset. We've worked very closely with the ICC on this and we've had various contingency plans in place around things like the shipping timelines for kit and equipment and there have been some challenges there.

“There have been a few delays there too, but we've worked through those as a team and we've got on top of those. One of the things that we were alert to was actually global travel and making sure teams arrived smoothly. We have got all 12 teams here, so that's good and we've managed that. Actually we were helped by, there was a few series going on actually in Scotland and Ireland and also England beforehand and teams did tend to arrive early there.

“But really that's just been about having them - we've had a risk register and sort of various contingency planning sessions in combination with the ICC. So us as the ECB LOC and the ICC had to make sure that we've just got various backup plans in place there. It's been something that we've had to be alert to, but we have been across. Fortunately, we've so far not encountered any major issues there,” she explained.

There’s also been some help from the British government too, added Beth. “There's some other bits there around working with our UK government to make sure if there was any, for example, like shortages of fuel as a result of the crisis, how we'd work with that.

“So we're very plugged into that and various kinds of security elements too. We've got a very, very, very sort of high quality safety and security overlay across the tournament, which is the same level that you'd expect to see around a men's global events in terms of that security footprint. So that's all pretty well covered," she said.

On the issue of online abuse - a growing concern across women's sport globally - Beth confirmed that dedicated monitoring software was in place for England women's players, with the ICC running a parallel system through an AI-driven programme named GoBubble at the tournament level.

In 2024, the ICC used GoBubble to counter all kinds of social media abuse towards teams and players, and monitored 1.5 million comments which were toxic in nature. The issue of abuse towards players again emerged when India lower-order batter Bharti Fulmali received hate and trolling over her looks on social media.

"Then in terms of the online abuse element, look, this is something which is not nice. It's something that I think is getting worse in some regards, but I think we have got various monitoring processes in place now. I know definitely for England women, we are working with a company that helped to monitor and support our players on that and the ICC have got something in place as well, but I would need to double check that.

“So I know that's definitely something that they did as part of the previous World Cup. It looks like you probably know more about that than me, but they definitely have had some software in place in the past and I think it might be the same company that we're using actually.

“I know it's a company that's used by a few major women's team sports now in terms of that monitoring and support system. But it is something that everybody is aware of and needs to be addressed," she concluded.

Source: IANS