While next year\u2019s edition in southern Africa remains a 14-team competition, the three lowest-ranked qualifiers will now take part in a preliminary round with just one of them progressing to a 12-strong main group stage.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
That will now feature just two pools of six, with a new \u2018super seven\u2019 stage replacing the previous \u2018super six\u2019 round-robin.<\/p>\n
Source: AFP<\/p>\n
The restructure comes after concerns were expressed about the prospect of too many dead rubbers, which in turn would lead to sparse crowds at venues, and the number of foregone conclusions at the recent T20 World Cup.<\/p>\n
Significantly, there will be no quarter-finals with the 50-over tournament denied the further jeopardy and interest that comes with an extra round of clear-cut knockout matches.<\/p>\n
The ICC, however, insisted in a statement that the new ODI World Cup structure \u201ccreates greater context, competitiveness and consequence during the event.\u201d <\/p>\n
An additional team in the round-robin phase also increases the prospects of an extra match between India and Pakistan.<\/p>\n
The passion for cricket in the subcontinent, which in turn generates huge broadcast rights and commercial revenues for the ICC, makes a match between India and Pakistan the most lucrative in the sport.<\/p>\n
India hand England historic ODI loss | 01:09<\/p>\n
But India and Pakistan no longer meet outside of ICC events, with political tensions between the bordering nations meaning they are effectively barred by their own governments from facing each other.<\/p>\n
The last bilateral series India played in Pakistan was in 2006 (Test and ODI series).<\/p>\n
Another change approved at the ICC\u2019s recent annual board meeting in Edinburgh will see the next men\u2019s T20 World Cup in 2028 remain a 20-team competition, but with 10 sides qualifying from the group stage rather than eight.<\/p>\n
The two best performing teams in the \u2018Super 10\u2019 will automatically secure a semi-final spot, with a new eliminator stage to decide their opponents.<\/p>\n
India’s Virat Kohli greets Australia’s Glenn Maxwell (L) at the end of the 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup one-day international (ODI) final.Source: AFP<\/p>\n
ICC loans Cricket West Indies $12.82 million<\/p>\n
In a separate announcement, the ICC said it had approved an $12.82 million loan to Cricket West Indies \u201cto support the member board\u201d.<\/p>\n
Unlike other leading international cricket teams, the West Indies are a regional side, with the relative economic weakness of its constituent Caribbean islands and territories, allied to the travel distances involved, putting CWI at a considerable financial disadvantage compared to the \u2018Big Three\u2019 of India, England and Australia.<\/p>\n
During the recent women\u2019s T20 World Cup in England, West Indies captain Hayley Matthews lamented an \u201cunfair\u201d funding ecosystem following her cash-strapped side\u2019s eight-wicket semi-final thrashing by Australia.<\/p>\n
Baz ‘sorry’ for demise of England | 02:14<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason we were so successful back in 2012 to 2016 is because women\u2019s cricket was based off pure talent at that time,\u201d said Matthews.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe minute that investment comes into the picture, we\u2019ve seen the gap widen a lot…I feel like it\u2019s a bit unfair sometimes.\u201d Will Glenwright, the ICC\u2019s head of global development, responded to Matthews\u2019s comments by telling AFP in an interview earlier this month: \u201cI think the one truth that is perpetual is there\u2019s never enough money — the members are always crying out for more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced on Wednesday a revamped format for the men\u2019s 2027 one-day international World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-803345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}