{"id":807909,"date":"2026-07-18T09:03:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T09:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/807909\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T09:03:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T09:03:16","slug":"world-cricketers-association-questions-icc-over-world-cup-format-change-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/807909\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cricketers\u2019 Association questions ICC over World Cup format change &#8211; Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NEW DELHI: The World Cricketers\u2019 Association (WCA) said on Friday it is \u201cconcerned\u201d that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/2015665\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">format of next year\u2019s World Cup <\/a>has been revised without consulting the players who are set to bear the brunt of it.<\/p>\n<p>The men\u2019s 50-over showpiece, to be co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, will remain a 14-team event, but the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday introduced a \u201cSuper Series\u201d round for the three lowest-ranked qualified sides.<\/p>\n<p>One of them will advance to the main group stage, a change that the ICC said would ensure a \u201cmeaningful contest\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ICC is entitled to determine the structure of its global events,\u201d WCA chief executive Tom Moffat said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, when commitments are made to the game, qualification pathways are established and countries and players invest years pursuing those opportunities, significant changes deserve genuine consultation, transparency and a clear explanation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is difficult to reconcile the game\u2019s stated ambition of growing cricket globally with decisions that reduce meaningful opportunities at pinnacle events for some of the countries that stood to benefit most from genuine expansion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The international players\u2019 body said the change in format raised \u201cimportant questions about transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Netherlands captain Scott Edwards was among several players to voice disappointment at the decision.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cQualifying for an ODI World Cup is a huge achievement for any country, so when the reality of that opportunity changes after years of planning, it\u2019s incredibly disappointing,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ICC talks a lot about growing the game globally, but decisions like this make it harder for associate nations to play against the best teams in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ireland captain Paul Stirling underlined the value such teams bring.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe smaller and associate countries have consistently proven to add value and interest at global events,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe football World Cup we\u2019ve just witnessed is testament to that in other sports and it would be great to see cricket take a similar approach to maximise opportunities for the game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW DELHI: The World Cricketers\u2019 Association (WCA) said on Friday it is \u201cconcerned\u201d that the format of next&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-807909","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\/807909","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=807909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}