ICC Changes World Cup Format: New Rules for 2027 and 2028

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced big changes to two of cricket's biggest events. The 2027 ODI World Cup and the 2028 T20 World Cup will both follow new formats. More teams will play. More rounds will decide who reaches the semifinals.

The 2027 ODI World Cup: More Teams, More Rounds

South Africa will host the 2027 ODI World Cup. This time, 14 teams will take part. The last ODI World Cup had only 10 teams.

The tournament will also have a new stage before the semifinals. Teams won't move straight from the group stage to the semis anymore. Instead, they'll go through three stages first.

Here's how the new format works, round by round:

Round 1 — Super Series: Three teams, ranked 12th to 14th in the qualifiers, play each other first. The winner of this round joins the other 11 teams in Round 2.

Round 2 — Groups: All 12 teams split into two groups. The top 3 teams from each group move on. One more team — the best-ranked team that didn't finish in the top 3 — also joins them. That makes 7 teams in total.

Round 3 — Super 7: These 7 teams play each other in a round-robin. The top 4 teams from this stage reach the semifinals.

Final: The two semifinal winners play each other for the title.

In total, the 2027 tournament will have 57 matches — 9 more than the last World Cup.

The 2028 T20 World Cup: A Bigger Knockout Stage

Australia and New Zealand will host the 2028 T20 World Cup. 20 teams will compete.

In the first stage, the teams split into 5 groups of 4. Only the top 2 teams from each group move forward. That gives 10 teams for the next stage.

Super 10 Replaces Super 8

The next stage is now called Super 10, instead of the old Super 8. The 10 teams split into two groups of 5.

In the last World Cup, the top teams from Super 8 went straight to the semifinals. This time, the ICC has added something new: an eliminator round, similar to the one used in the IPL.

Here's how it works:

The top team in each Super 10 group goes straight to the semifinals. That's 2 teams.
The teams that finish 2nd and 3rd in each group don't go home right away. They play an eliminator match instead.
The winners of these eliminator matches take the final 2 semifinal spots.

So instead of only the group winners moving on, second and third-place teams now get one more chance to fight their way into the semis.

Why the ICC Made These Changes

More teams and more rounds mean more matches for fans to watch. They also give teams from outside the top cricket nations a real chance to compete on the biggest stage.

The new rounds also mean there's less room for a bad start. A team that loses early on will have to fight through extra stages to stay in the tournament. At the same time, the eliminator matches in the T20 World Cup give strong teams a second chance if they slip up in the group stage.