The International Cricket Council (ICC) has approved major changes to the formats of the Men’s Cricket World Cup and the T20 World Cup.
A new three-stage format has been approved for the 14-team Men’s Cricket World Cup. Under the new format, the tournament will begin with a Super Series involving the teams ranked 12th, 13th and 14th.
The winner of the Super Series will advance to the second stage, where two groups of six teams each will compete. A total of seven teams will qualify for the third stage, called the Super 7.
The top three teams from each group, along with the next best-ranked team, will qualify for the Super 7. All seven teams will then play each other, with the top four advancing to the semi-finals.
According to the ICC, the new World Cup format is designed to make every match more important and competitive from the very first game.
The ICC has also approved replacing the Super 8 stage with a Super 10 stage in the 20-team T20 World Cup.
The first round of the T20 World Cup will feature five groups of four teams each. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the Super 10, taking the total to 10 teams.
The teams finishing first in the two Super 10 groups will qualify directly for the semi-finals.
For the first time, teams finishing second and third in the Super 10 groups will play eliminator matches.
According to the ICC, the winners of the eliminators will secure places in the semi-finals, while the new formats will increase the importance and quality of competition at every stage.
The ICC has also given in-principle approval to a 16-team global T20 tournament for Associate Member nations.
The proposed 16-team tournament will be held before the T20 World Cup, with final approval expected in November.
The ICC Board has also approved a new qualification system for the 2028 T20 World Cup. Teams that do not qualify directly for the 2026 T20 World Cup will compete in the Global Qualifier.
Teams for the 2028 T20 World Cup will qualify through the Africa, Asia, Europe, Americas and East Asia-Pacific regional pathways.
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