Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has revamped the formats for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2027 and the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2028.
The ICC Board approved the new formats during its Annual General Meeting held in Edinburgh, Scotland.
ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2027
Under the new format, the bottom three of the 14 qualified teams will play a round-robin series in Round 1.
The winner of Round 1 will join the other 11 teams in Round 2. The 12 teams will be divided into two groups of six, with each team playing every other team in its group once. The top three teams from each group, as well as the next best-placed team across both groups, will advance to the Super 7 stage in Round 3.
In Round 3, or the Super 7 stage, each team will play every other team once. The top four teams will qualify for the semifinals. The team finishing first will face the fourth-placed team in the first semifinal, while the teams finishing second and third will meet in the second semifinal.
The two hosts—South Africa and Zimbabwe—and the top eight ODI teams in the rankings as of March 31, 2027 will qualify directly for the tournament. The remaining four places will be filled through the Cricket World Cup Qualifier.
The Qualifier will feature the teams ranked ninth and 10th in the ODI rankings, the top four teams from the Cricket World Cup League 2, and the top four teams from the Qualifier Play-off. The Qualifier Play-off will feature the teams placed fifth to eighth in Cricket World Cup League 2 and the top four teams from the ICC Challenge League.
ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2028
The Men’s T20 World Cup will feature 20 teams, as in the previous edition.
The teams will be divided into five groups of four in the Group Stage. The top two teams from each group will progress to the Super 10.
The Super 10 stage will feature two groups of five teams. Each team will play every other team in its group once in a round-robin format. The winners of the two Super 10 groups will qualify directly for the semifinal, while the remaining two semifinalists will be decided through the Eliminators. Under the new format, the second-placed team from one group will play the third-placed team from the other group in the Eliminators. The winners of the Eliminators will join the two group winners in the semifinal.
ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2028 Qualification
Twelve teams have already secured their spots in the tournament based on the team rankings at the 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup. They include Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the West Indies and Zimbabwe.
The remaining eight teams will qualify through a new 16-team Global Qualifier.
The eight teams that played in the 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup but failed to finish among the top 12 will directly enter the Global Qualifier. They are Canada, Italy, Namibia, Nepal, the Netherlands, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.
Eight others from the regional qualifiers—two each from Asia, Europe and Africa, and one each from the Americas and East Asia-Pacific—will join them in the Global Qualifier.
From the Global Qualifier, the highest-placed team from each region will qualify for the World Cup regardless of their overall position in the standings. The next three highest-placed teams overall will also qualify for the tournament.
