ICC expands member participation in Men’s ODI World Cup and T20 World Cup; reintroduces Champions Trophy

The International cricket Council (ICC) released the schedule of its grand events for the year 2024 to 2031 in an official statement on Tuesday.

The 50-over World Cup will be held in 2027 and 2031 in the stated period, whereas the T20 World Cup will occur in 2024, 2026, 2028 and 2030.

While the 50-over World Cup will have 14 participants divided into two groups, with the top three from each cluster progressing to the Super Six stage followed by the knockout events, the T20 World Cup will see participation from 20 teams, which would be divided into four groups. The sides occupying the top two positions in each grouping would get a chance to enter the Super eight-stage, after which there will be the semi-finals and the grand finale.

Thus, the 50-over World Cup will have 54 contests, and the T20 World Cup shall be a 55-match event.
Interestingly, the ODI World Cup format resembles that of the ICC Men’s World Cup 2003.

ICC also introduced the Champions League that will follow its previous formats of eight-team, divided equally into two groups. The Champions League will take place in 2025 and 2029.

The newly introduced World Test Championship (WTC) will have its finals in 2025 and 2029.

The Governing body also gave equal weightage to Women’s cricket. It delivered on its promise of ensuring development to growing the women’s game by expanding the T20 World Cup and Cricket World Cup.

ICC, in their official statement, further revealed that they are planning to stage the T20 World Cup 2021 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and also include another Middle East country. However, the official press release confirmed that the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) would remain the hosts irrespective of the venue.

ICC even determined the process for selecting the hosts for the Men’s, Women’s and U-19 events in the next cycle.

Talking about it, ICC’s Acting Chief Executive Geoff Allardice asserted that the revision in process for selecting the hosts gave the game’s apex body more opportunities to ‘grow the game and engage new fans.’

“The revised approach to selecting hosts for our events will give us much more flexibility to grow the game and engage new fans. There is a smaller pool of countries with the infrastructure needed to host our senior Men’s events which narrows the selection process. Additionally, many of our Members expressed interest in hosting Women’s and U19 events which gives us a great opportunity to stage events in established and emerging cricket nations,” Allardice said in an official press release.

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