The International Cricket Council (ICC) held its annual meeting/conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, last week. Matters involving all forms of cricket were discussed, including changing the structure of the World Test Championship (WTC), reducing the number of teams in the ODI World Cup, the next Future Tours Programme (FTP), the future of ODI cricket, and a new tournament.
More IND vs PAK matches
According to BBC Sport, the ICC wishes to change the structure of the men’s World Cups. A proposal has been introduced to decrease the number of teams at the ODI World Cup 2027 from 14 to 12. A ‘Super 7’ stage will be introduced, unlike the round-robin one in the last edition. That would mean only two teams could qualify, instead of four, from the ODI World Cup Qualifier.
Instead of a ‘Super 8’ stage, the ICC wants to introduce a ‘Super 10’ stage in the T20 World Cup. The purpose of this move is to increase the number of India vs Pakistan matches. The two teams face each other at only multi-nation events, and considering it’s the biggest draw in cricket, the ICC wants them to play at least 2 matches.
Semifinals in WTC
There will be no addition of teams for the next WTC cycle, 2027-2029. The ICC working group, headed by New Zealand board member Roger Twose, will keep working on that. However, the possibility of adding semifinals to the WTC has been discussed. The ICC expects the change will generate more interest in the tournament.
South Africa are reigning WTC champions having defeat Australia in 2025 | Image Credit: AlamyICC’s Club World Cup T20
The ICC wants to launch Club World Cup T20, a tournament similar to Fédération Internationale de Football Association’s (FIFA) Club World Cup. The best teams from franchise leagues of each continent will play together. The tournament could be launched in the next couple of years. It’ll be like the Champions League T20 (CLT20), but the ICC will run it instead of the Big 3 – England, India and Australia – boards.
Decrease in bilateral cricket
The Big 3 have locked their schedule for the next FTP cycle, 2027 to 2031, but the rest of the full members haven’t done so yet. The majority of the FTP will be completed in the August meeting and will be reviewed one last time in September. It’s expected that white-ball bilateral series will decrease and a series of mini-intercontinental quadrangular tournaments will replace them, featuring two full-member teams from one region.
No real ODI changes
Unlike what the reports suggested, the ICC won’t reduce ODI cricket from 50 to 40 overs. The board will try to reinvent the format to keep it relevant, but not by reducing overs. The ODI World Cup Super League, which ran from 2020 to 2023, won’t return.
The ICC had scrapped the tournament for the ODI World Cup 2027, which was used as a qualification structure that would benefit associate members by facing full member nations. The ICC won’t do anything else other than encourage stronger boards to play more ‘A’ matches against smaller teams.
ICC wants more IND vs PAK matches, FIFA-like Club World Cup & WTC semifinals in works Inside Sport India.
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