ICC ODI World Cup to expand to 14 teams in 2027 and 2031, 20-team T20 World Cup to be held every two years

Dubai: The T20 World Cup will be held every two years during the next eight-year Futures Tours & Programme (FTP) cycle while the 50-over event will be a 14-team affair from the 2027 edition, the game’s governing body ICC said on Tuesday. Also as per PTI’s earlier report, the World Test Championship will have four editions in the next cycle apart from two Champions Trophy. “The ICC Board today confirmed the schedule of ICC events from 2024-2031 with both the men’s Cricket World Cup and men’s T20 World Cup to be expanded and a men’s Champions Trophy to be re-introduced,” the global body said in a release issued after the board meeting. “The men’s Cricket World Cup will become a 14-team, 54-match event in 2027 and 2031, whilst the men’s T20 World Cup will be expanded to a 20-team, 55-match event in 2024, 2026, 2028 and 2030.” [caption id=“attachment_8648571” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  Representative photo. Reuters[/caption] The 50-over format currently is a 10-team event while this edition of T20 World Cup will be a 16-team affair. “An eight team Champions Trophy will be hosted in 2025 and 2029. World Test Championship Finals will be hosted in 2025, 2027, 2029 and 2031. The ICC Women’s event schedule has already been confirmed with the expansion of both the Cricket World Cup and T20 World Cup forming part of the ICC’s long-term commitment to growing the women’s game,” it further stated. The men’s World Cup format will have two groups of seven, with the top three in each group progressing to a Super Six stage, followed by semi-finals and final. This is the same format that was used in the 2003 edition. The format of the T20 World Cup will consist of four groups of five, with the top two from each group going through to a Super Eights stage, followed by the knockout stages of semi-finals and a final. The Champions Trophy will follow previous editions with two groups of four, semi-finals and final. The ICC Board also approved the process for determining the hosts for all men’s, women’s and U-19 events in the next cycle. The hosts for the men’s events will be decided in September following a selection process that will get underway this month. The hosting process for women’s and U-19 events will commence in November and will be an opportunity to engage with a wider range of Members including first-time hosts. “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,” ICC Acting Chief Executive Geoff Allardice said. “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.”