On Tuesday, The International Cricket Council announced the schedule for the global events to be held from 2024 to 2031. Following its board meeting, the governing body decided to expand the World Cups in ODIs and T20Is and revived the 50-over Champions Trophy.
Due to be held in 2027 and 2031, the ODI World Cup will revert back to 14 teams in the 2003 format, with two groups of 7 each deciding the Super 6s, followed by the semi-finals and the final.
The T20 World Cup will be played every two years in 2024, 2026, 2028 and 2030 and include 20 teams. They’ll be divided into four groups of five, with the top 2 from each group making the Super 8s followed by the semis and the final.
After an eight-year gap, the Champions Trophy will be back in the cricketing itinerary and, as it did in the previous editions, including eight teams divided into two groups of four before the knock-outs. The Champions Trophy will be held in 2025 and 2029.
The ICC also confirmed that the World Test Championship would have its finals held in 2025, 2027, 2029 and 2031, although it isn’t clear whether the league tournament will retain its current make-up or expand, as was being reported becoming an all-play-all competition.
Neither there was clarity on the future of the ICC Super League, a fantastic merit-based concept, which determines the direct qualification spots for the 50-over World Cup. The ICC didn’t also shed light on the development of talks on cricket’s Olympics inclusion or the revival of the Intercontinental Cup, both of which have been topics debated at length in recent times.
Still, the news of World Cup expansions with the return to the Champions Trophy is a welcome one for cricket’s lower-ranked full-members and associate countries.
The 2019 World Cup was the first in cricket’s history with zero associate representation and even had two full-member nations – Ireland and Zimbabwe – missing, reflective of cricket’s much-criticised elitist attitude and short-sighted governance.
The World Cup participation is of great importance to the associate countries, who are able to raise the game’s profile in their respective markets through performances at the biggest stage.
“Having the ICC event schedule confirmed through to 2031 is a significant step forward for cricket and will form the basis of our growth strategy for the next decade,” said Geoff Allardice, ICC Acting Chief Executive.
In their meeting, the ICC board officials also approved the process of determining the hosts for each of the events in the next cycle for men’s, women’s and U-19 events.
“The hosts for the Men’s events will be decided in September following a selection process that will get underway this month,” the ICC said in a media release.
Allardice added, “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.”
The ICC also informed it is focused on planning for this year’s T20 World Cup to be staged in UAE, with the possible inclusion of another venue in the Middle East.
The tournament is slated to be held in India in October-November but with the second wave of the pandemic resulting in a health crisis here, shifting it outside is now a strong possibility. A final decision in this regard will be taken later this month. It is confirmed that BCCI will remain the tournament host irrespective of where it is held.
