Changes made to formats of next year’s men’s World Cup in southern Africa and 2028 T20 tournament co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand
The International Cricket Council has revamped the format for men’s World Cups, adding a cut-throat preliminary round and expanding the round-robin stage for the 50-over event, while also tinkering with the T20 set-up.
The structure of the ICC’s flagship global tournaments was a major topic of debate at the recent board meeting in Edinburgh, with changes made to the men’s 50-over showpiece in southern Africa next year as well as the next T20 World Cup in 2028 that is to be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
Reports that the ODI World Cup’s planned expansion to 14 teams (up from 10) would be dialled back have not been fully realised, however the ICC has introduced a first-round stage that will feature the three lowest-ranked qualifiers, with just one team to progress to the group stage.
That group stage will now feature two pools of six, with an expanded ‘Super Seven’ round-robin stage to follow. The top three teams from each pool, plus the next best team across the two groups, will make up the ‘Super Seven’.
An additional team in the round-robin phase increases the prospects of an extra match between India and Pakistan, by far the most lucrative fixture the sport has to offer and one the ICC is eager to facilitate at all times given the rival boards’ refusal to play each other in bilateral contests.
The top four teams from the ‘Super Seven’ stage will advance direct to the semi-finals. The governing body says the new structure “creates greater context, competitiveness and consequence during the event”.
The 2023 ODI World Cup – which Australia won by beating India in the final in Ahmedabad – was a 10-team round-robin tournament, with the top four teams following the round-robin phase making up the semi-finalists.
Men’s T20 World Cup format rejigged
The next men’s T20 World Cup, to be held across up to 10 venues in Australia and New Zealand in 2028, will remain a 20-team event, but now with 10 teams qualifying from the group stage instead of the eight as was the case in this year’s event.
While the 2026 tournament saw four groups with five teams each, the 2028 tournament will instead have five groups of four teams. The top two teams in each group will advance to a ‘Super 10’ stage which will be made up of two groups of five. How teams are filtered into the two groups has not been made clear.
The ICC said increasing the number of teams in the second round was due to the “performance of emerging teams” in this year’s tournament.
“This promises to expand the representation of cricket’s emerging nations in the Super 10 stage while also delivering higher competitive standards,” the ICC said.
The top team from each ‘Super 10’ group will automatically secure a semi-final spot, with a new eliminator stage to decide their opponents.
That will see the second team from each group play the third-placed team from the other group, with the winners to make up the semi-finalists. The ICC said this “adds significant consequence to the closing matches” of the ‘Super 10’ phase and reduce the chances of dead-rubbers between already-eliminated sides.
CEO of the 2028 T20 World Cup, Joel Morrison, said there were 14 venues vying for hosting rights for the tournament that was last held in Australia in 2022.
“The enhanced format sees each match carrying genuine consequence, providing fans, host cities, and venue, broadcast and commercial partners an even stronger tournament proposition,” Morrison said in a statement.
“There is very strong interest in the event, with 14 prospective host cities across Australia and New Zealand vying to secure matches.
“The tournament will feature between eight and ten venues, with host cities and venues to be confirmed in mid-October, marking two years to go until the World Cup.”
There are also changes to the qualification pathway for the 2028 T20 World Cup. Scotland – who were a late addition to the 2026 tournament after Bangladesh pulled out amid political tensions – must begin their qualification quest from the European qualifying tournament.
There are 12 teams that have already secured qualification to the 2028 tournament, including co-hosts Australia and New Zealand. They will be joined by England, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe – who all qualified by reaching the second round this year – as well as Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Ireland, based on the T20I rankings.
Other teams from the 2026 tournament – Canada, Italy, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, Oman, UAE and USA – will compete in a new ‘marquee’ 16-team global qualifier event. The remaining eight spots at that qualification tournament would be filled by two teams from the Asia, Africa and Europe regional qualifiers, plus one from the Americas and East Asia-Pacific regional qualifiers.
The highest placed team from each region at the global qualifier, together with the next three highest-placed teams overall, would then progress to the main draw of the 2028 T20 World Cup.
However, this is “subject to minimum performance criteria”, says the ICC, while final approval on this qualification pathway has been delayed until the ICC’s November board meetings.
