Changes have been made to the formats of next year’s men’s World Cup in southern Africa and the 2028 T20 tournament co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
The International Cricket Council has revamped the format of the men’s World Cup, adding a cutthroat preliminary round and expanding the round-robin stage for the 50-over tournament, while also working on tweaking the T20.
The structure of the ICC’s flagship global tournaments was a major topic of discussion at a recent board meeting in Edinburgh, with changes to be made to the men’s over-50s tournament in southern Africa next year, as well as the next T20 World Cup in 2028, which will be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
Reports that the planned expansion of the ODI World Cup to 14 teams (from 10) would be reduced did not fully materialize, however the ICC introduced a first-round stage that would feature the three lowest-ranked qualifiers and only one team would advance to the group stage.
The group stage will now consist of two groups of six players, followed by an expanded round-robin “Super Seven” stage. The top three teams from each group, plus the next best team in the two groups, will form the “Super Seven”.
An additional team in the round-robin phase increases the chances of an additional match between India and Pakistan, by far the most lucrative match the sport has to offer and one that the ICC is always keen to facilitate given the refusal of the rival teams to play each other in bilateral competitions.
The top four teams from the Super Seven stage will advance directly to the semi-finals. The governing body says the new structure “creates greater context, competitiveness and impact during the event.”
The 2023 ODI World Cup, which Australia won by defeating India in the final in Ahmedabad, was a 10-team round-robin tournament in which the top four teams through the round-robin were semi-finalists.
Men’s T20 World Cup format changed
The next men’s T20 World Cup, to be held at 10 venues in Australia and New Zealand in 2028, will still be played with 20 teams, but 10 teams will now qualify from the group stage instead of eight as was the case this year.
While the 2026 tournament had four groups of five teams each, the 2028 tournament will have five groups of four teams. The top two teams in each group will advance to the Super 10 stage, which will consist of two groups of five people. How the teams are distributed into the two groups is not specified.
The ICC said the increase in the number of teams in the second round was due to the “performance of new teams” in this year’s tournament.
“This promises to increase the representation of developing countries in Super 10 cricket, as well as provide higher standards of competition,” the ICC said.
The top team from each Super 10 group will automatically earn a place in the semi-finals, while their opponents will be determined by a new round of qualifying.
As a result, the second team from each group will play the third place team from the other group, with the winners entering the semi-finalists. The ICC said this “adds significant ramifications to the final matches” of the Super 10 phase and reduces the likelihood of confusion between already eliminated teams.
2028 T20 World Cup CEO Joel Morrison said 14 venues were vying to host the tournament, which was last hosted in Australia in 2022.
“The enhanced format means every match will have real impact, providing fans, host cities, venues, broadcasters and commercial partners with an even stronger tournament proposition,” Morrison said in a statement.
“There is a lot of interest in the event, with 14 potential host cities in Australia and New Zealand vying for the right to host the matches.
“The tournament will feature between eight and 10 places and host cities and venues will be confirmed in mid-October, meaning the World Cup is two years away.”
There have also been changes to the qualifying route for the 2028 T20 World Cup. Scotland, a late entrant into the 2026 tournament after Bangladesh pulled out due to political tensions, must begin their qualifying quest with a European qualifier.
12 teams have already secured qualification for the 2028 tournament, including hosts Australia and New Zealand. They will be joined by England, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe (all of whom qualified by reaching the second round this year), as well as Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Ireland, according to the T20I rankings.
Other teams from the 2026 tournament – Canada, Italy, Namibia, Nepal, the Netherlands, Oman, UAE and the United States – will compete in a new 16-team global qualifier. The remaining eight spots in this qualifier will be filled by two teams from the Asia, Africa and Europe regional qualifiers, as well as one team from the Americas and East Asia-Pacific regional qualifiers.
The highest placed team from each region in the global qualifiers, along with the next three highest placed teams overall, will then qualify for the main draw of the 2028 T20 World Cup.
However, this is “subject to meeting minimum performance criteria”, the ICC says, and final approval of this qualification pathway has been delayed until the ICC board meetings in November.