The ICC board has announced major changes to the events held from 2024 – 2031 with the expansion of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup to 14 teams across 57 matches for 2027 and 2031 and ICC Men’s T20 World Cup to feature 20 teams across 55 matches. The Men’s Champions Trophy will also be reintroduced and will be hosted in 2025 and 2029.
In addition, the World Test Championship Final will be hosted in 2025, 2027, 2029 and 2031. The ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup format will now have two groups of seven where the top three teams will progress to the Super Six stage, identical to the 50-over World Cup held in 2003. The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup will comprise four groups of five, with the top two teams progressing to the Super Eight. The Champions Trophy will follow the same format as previous editions with two groups of four, semi-finals and finals.
The hosts for the Men’s events will be decided by the ICC in September after a selection process this month. The hosting process for the U19 and Women’s events will begin in November. The ICC Board has asked management to focus its efforts on hosting the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 in the UAE with the possibility of including another venue in the Middle East. The final decision will be taken later this month about the host nation while the BCCI remain event hosts irrespective of the venue.
In a press release by the ICC, ICC Acting Chief Executive Geoff Allardice said: “Having the ICC event schedule confirmed through to 2031 is a significant step forward for cricket and will form the basis of our growth strategy for the next decade.
“The revised approach to selecting hosts for our events will give us much more flexibility to grow the game and engage new fans. There is a smaller pool of countries with the infrastructure needed to host our senior Men’s events which narrows the selection process. Additionally, many of our Members expressed interest in hosting Women’s and U19 events which gives us a great opportunity to stage events in established and emerging cricket nations.”
