The International Cricket Council (ICC) has approved sweeping changes to the formats of its flagship men's tournaments, introducing new competition structures for the 2027 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup and the 2028 ICC Men's T20 World Cup.
The changes were approved at the ICC Annual General Meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland, and are aimed at increasing competitiveness while ensuring more matches carry qualification significance.
The revamped formats follow the ICC's review of recent global tournaments, where several group-stage matches had little bearing on qualification.
The governing body said the new structures are designed to create more meaningful contests, strengthen competition and enhance the tournament experience for players and fans.
"The changes were introduced to create more meaningful contests, elevate competitive standards, strengthen the competitive structure of both events, and enhance the tournament experience for athletes and fans," the ICC said.
2027 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup: What's Changing?
The 2027 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup, to be co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, will continue to feature 14 teams but will adopt a new three-stage format.
The tournament will begin with a newly introduced Super Series, where the bottom three qualified teams will compete in a round-robin format. The winner will advance to the main tournament.
The remaining 12 teams will then be divided into two groups of six for the group stage. Each team will play the others in its group once, with the top three teams from each group and the next best-placed team across both groups progressing to the Super 7 stage.
The Super 7 will feature another round-robin phase, with the top four teams advancing to the semi-finals.
According to the ICC, the revised format is designed to ensure that more matches have qualification implications throughout the tournament.
2028 ICC Men's T20 World Cup: What's New?
The 2028 ICC Men's T20 World Cup, to be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, will retain its 20-team field but replace the existing Super 8 with a new Super 10 stage.
The tournament will begin with five groups of four teams, replacing the previous format of four groups of five used at the 2026 edition.
The top two teams from each group will qualify for the Super 10, where the 10 remaining teams will be split into two groups of five.
The winners of each Super 10 group will qualify directly for the semi-finals, while the teams finishing second and third will compete in a newly introduced Eliminators round to determine the remaining two semi-finalists.
The ICC said the revised format is intended to expand opportunities for emerging teams by increasing representation in the second stage of the competition.
Qualification Pathway For 2028 T20 World Cup
Twelve teams have already secured direct qualification for the 2028 tournament based on their performances at the 2026 T20 World Cup and ICC rankings. These are Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe.
Scotland has also been granted direct entry into the Europe Regional Final due to exceptional circumstances related to the 2026 T20 World Cup.
The remaining eight places at the 16-team Global Qualifier will be decided through regional qualification tournaments, with Africa, Asia and Europe receiving two berths each, while the Americas and East Asia-Pacific regions will receive one each.
Canada, Italy, Namibia, Nepal, the Netherlands, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and the United States have all advanced directly to the Global Qualifier after competing in the 2026 edition but missing out on automatic qualification.
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The highest-placed team from each region at the Global Qualifier, along with the next three best-performing teams overall, will qualify for the 2028 ICC Men's T20 World Cup, subject to minimum performance criteria.
While the ICC Board has approved the revised tournament formats following recommendations from the ICC Development Committee and the Chief Executives' Committee, the proposals remain subject to a final review by the Finance & Commercial Affairs Committee.
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