ICC revises formats for Men’s Cricket WC, T20 WC

The International Cricket Council (ICC) Board concluded its annual meetings in Edinburgh with decisions to evolve and enhance the marquee stature of its global events.

The Board, comprising three representatives from associate nations approved the recommendations it received from the Chief Executives’ Committee (comprising Chief Executives and representatives from Full and Associate Members) related to the formats of the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup and the ICC Men's T20 World Cup.

An evolved competition format for the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup that continues to feature 14 participating teams was approved.

The ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup will see a revised format that will entail a three-stage competition leading to the Finals.

Matches from Round 1 and Round 2 will now carry higher consequence with a highly competitive Super 7 stage witnessing seven qualifying teams going through a round-robin stage to qualify for the semi-finals.

As for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, global cricket’s regulatory body has decided to increase the number of teams competing in the second stage of the tournament from eight to 10, while maintaining the opportunity for emerging teams to qualify for that stage (two teams continue to qualify from each group).

The addition of “eliminators” where the second and third ranked teams from groups in the Super 10 stage compete against each other for spots in the semi-finals also then adds significant consequence to the closing matches of the Super 10 stage.

For the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2028 qualification pathway, Scotland will enter directly into the Europe Regional Final.

The remaining teams that participated at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 but did not secure automatic qualification will advance directly to the Global Qualifier.

The other eight places in the Global Qualifier will be filled through regional qualification, with two teams each qualifying from Africa, Asia and Europe, and one team each from the Americas and East Asia-Pacific regions.

The highest placed team from each region at the Global Qualifier, together with the next three highest-placed teams overall, will qualify for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2028.