The ICC has confirmed a new format for the 2027 ODI World Cup, adding a Super Series round before the group stage and a Super 7 round before the semi-finals. South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia will co-host the tournament, which retains its 14-team structure but changes how teams progress through it.
The ICC announced the format on Wednesday following its Annual Conference in Edinburgh. Officials said the changes aim to add stakes to the early matches, after concerns about dead rubbers and low attendance at previous editions. The T20 World Cup faced similar criticism this year, with several matches decided well before the final overs.
How the Super Series and Super 7 rounds will work
Teams ranked 12th to 14th will open the tournament in the Super Series round. Only one of these three teams advances to the group stage. That team joins 11 others in a 12-team group round split into two pools, where 30 matches take place. This round forms the core of the tournament, similar to the group stage in the 2015 and 2011 editions.
The top three finishers from each group, plus the next-best-ranked team across both groups, move into the Super 7. Seven teams then play a round-robin phase, and the top four progress to the semi-finals. The ICC said this structure raises the competitive value of matches in Round 1 and Round 2, since results carry more weight than in a straightforward group format.
The final schedule and fixture list will be confirmed at an ICC meeting in October, when the next Future Tours Programme is also expected to be discussed. Hosting duties are likely to stay close to earlier plans, with South Africa staging most matches, Zimbabwe hosting around ten, and Namibia holding a smaller share.
Qualification process for the 2027 World Cup
The ICC has not changed how teams qualify for the tournament. Ten teams will qualify automatically: co-hosts South Africa and Zimbabwe, along with the eight highest-ranked teams in ODI cricket. Rankings will be locked in as of September 2026.
The remaining four spots will go through a global qualifier. This event is expected to feature ten teams, made up of the next two highest-ranked sides, four teams from the World Cup Cricket League 2, and four teams from a separate qualifier playoff. The ICC has not set exact dates, but the event is likely to take place in December 2026 or January 2027, possibly in Namibia or South Africa.
Why the ICC changed the World Cup structure
The 50-over World Cup has shifted formats several times over the years. Fourteen teams competed in 2015, and 16 played in 2011, before the ICC moved to a ten-team round-robin format for the 2019 and 2023 tournaments. That change followed a 2021 decision to expand the event back to 14 teams starting in 2027.
With the T20 World Cup now driving much of the ICC’s growth strategy, calls to widen the ODI World Cup have continued. The Super Series and Super 7 rounds offer a middle path — keeping the 14-team field while adding knockout pressure earlier in the competition, rather than expanding the number of participating teams.
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