Top News

New Delhi: ICC has made a historic change in the format of the Men’s ODI World Cup to be held in 2027. ICC revealed the new rules after the annual AGM held in Edinburgh. The objective is clear – to make the initial matches of the tournament more exciting so that no team takes the initial rounds lightly. The tournament will be hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. A total of 14 teams will play in this. But this time one team will be eliminated even before the main group stage.

New format: ‘Super Series’ round will come first   

This time ICC is coming with a new ‘Super Series’ round. The bottom 3 teams in the ranking will play round-robin matches among themselves. That means all three teams will face each other. Only 1 team from this round will advance. The journey of the remaining 2 teams will end here. ICC says that this will make every match feel like a knockout even in the initial stages.

Round 2: 30 matches between 12 teams   

There will be a total of 12 teams including 1 team that qualified from the Super Series and 11 teams that already got direct entry. These 12 teams will be divided into 2 groups of 6-6. Each team will play 1 match each against the remaining 5 teams of its group. In this way there will be a total of 30 matches in Round 2.

At the end of the group stage, the top 3 teams of both the groups i.e. a total of 6 teams will go straight ahead. Also, among the teams ranked 7th in both the groups, the one whose performance will be the best will also get a chance.

‘Super-7’ round will be the twist of the tournament   

After the group stage, the tournament will move to the ‘Super-7’ round. This is the biggest new attraction of this World Cup. In this round, 7 teams will play one match each against each other. That means there will be a total of 21 high-voltage matches. Points table will be prepared after all the matches. The top 4 teams of this table will directly reach the semi-finals. The formula for the semi-finals is also simple – No. 1 vs No. 4 and No. 2 vs No. 3.

Why did ICC take this decision?  

ICC argues that in the 14-team World Cup, many times the initial matches were one-sided. The ‘Super Series’ will give the lower ranked teams a chance to prove themselves and the competition in the middle rounds with the ‘Super-7’ will be tough.

With this new formula the total number of matches will increase and every team will have to perform consistently to reach the finals. The 2027 World Cup will be played in October-November. This format will definitely bring more drama and uncertainty for the fans.