ICC Announces Landmark Changes to Men’s World Cup and T20 World Cup
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has approved major changes to the formats of its premier men’s events, the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup and ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, following the Board’s annual meeting in Edinburgh.
The decisions, based on recommendations from the ICC Chief Executives’ Committee, are aimed at making both tournaments more competitive, ensuring every match carries greater significance, and creating additional opportunities for emerging cricket nations.
Alongside the format changes, the ICC also confirmed the qualification process for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2028 and gave its backing to a proposed new 16-team global competition exclusively focused on Associate Member nations.
For the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, the tournament will continue to feature 14 teams but with a completely revamped format. A new qualifying phase, known as the Super Series, will be introduced before the main event, where the teams ranked 12th, 13th and 14th will compete in a round-robin contest. The winner will secure the final place in the main tournament.
The main competition will then feature two groups of six teams each. The top three sides from both groups, along with the best fourth-placed team overall, will advance to a newly introduced Super 7 stage.
In the Super 7, all seven qualified teams will face each other once, with the top four progressing to the semi-finals before the winners battle for the World Cup title in the final.
According to the ICC, the revised structure is designed to ensure that every stage of the tournament remains meaningful while maintaining opportunities for developing cricket nations to compete against the world’s best.
The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup will also keep its 20-team lineup but will feature a significantly different format. The opening round will now consist of five groups of four teams instead of four groups of five, reducing the number of first-round matches from 40 to 30. The top two teams from each group will still qualify for the next stage.
Replacing the existing Super Eights will be a new Super 10 stage, where the 10 qualified teams will be divided into two groups of five. The winners of each group will qualify directly for the semi-finals.
To add more importance to the later stages, the second-placed team from each Super 10 group will play an Eliminator against the third-placed team from the opposite group. The two winners will complete the semi-final lineup.
The ICC believes this new system will provide more opportunities for emerging teams to compete deeper into the tournament while ensuring high-quality, meaningful contests throughout the event.
The Board also approved the qualification pathway for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2028. Scotland has been granted direct entry into the Europe Regional Final due to exceptional circumstances related to the 2026 tournament.
Teams that participated in the 2026 T20 World Cup but missed out on automatic qualification will move directly into the Global Qualifier.
The remaining eight Global Qualifier spots will be decided through regional events, with Africa, Asia and Europe each sending two teams, while the Americas and East Asia-Pacific regions will each have one representative.
From the Global Qualifier, the highest-ranked team from each region, along with the next three best-performing teams overall, will earn places at the 2028 T20 World Cup, subject to the ICC’s minimum performance standards.
In addition, the ICC has endorsed plans for a new 16-team international tournament for Associate Member nations. The event is intended to improve the standard of Associate cricket and provide those teams with a major global competition ahead of the T20 World Cup.
The proposal has received support from both the ICC Development Committee and the Chief Executives’ Committee, with final approval expected after a review by the ICC Finance and Commercial Affairs Committee during the Board’s November meeting.
