Cricket’s two biggest tournaments are about to look very different. The International Cricket Council has confirmed new ICC formats for the Men’s ODI World Cup and the Men’s T20 World Cup, and the shift is bigger than a few extra fixtures.
Both events grow as well as add a fresh middle stage. And both aim to cut down on matches that stop mattering halfway through a tournament, which has been a long standing complaint from fans and former players alike. At Winclash, we have gone through the announcement line by line so you don’t have to.
Breaking Down the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup Format
The ICC Men’s ODI World Cup format shifts starting with the 2027 edition, which is hosted jointly by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. For that one, the tournament grows from ten teams to fourteen, and then there’s a new three round track that eventually leads you into the semi finals.
Staying on top of a shift such as the new ICC format can be tough when you’re following it across headlines. For real time analysis and ball by ball cricket match updates coverage, our tournament platforms track every group and every stage as it unfolds.
Round One: The Opening Series
The three lowest seeded of the fourteen qualified sides open the tournament against each other. Only the side that finishes on top moves through. The other two are out before the main draw even begins.
Round Two: The Group Stage
The survivor joins the remaining eleven sides to make twelve. They split into two pools of six and perform a full round robin. From each pool, the top three advance, along with the next best placed side from either group.
Round Three: The Super Seven
Seven sides now engage in a single round robin against each other. The top four head to the semi finals, with first facing fourth and second facing third, before the champions of those matches meet in the final.
Let’s take a look at the new ICC format:
- The event expands from ten teams to fourteen for the first time.
- An opening series removes two of the three lowest seeds straight away.
- Twelve teams split into two groups of six for the main round robin.
- Seven teams contest a single round robin to decide the semi final line up.
- Four teams reach the semi finals, and two reach the final.
Shaking Up the ICC T20 World Cup Format
The ICC T20 World Cup format also varies, starting with the new 2028 edition in Australia and New Zealand. The tournament stays at twenty teams, but the route through it looks nothing like current year.
A Different Group Stage
Instead of four groups of five, the twenty sides now split into five groups of four. That trims the group stage from forty matches down to thirty, so early defeats carry more weight.
The New Super Ten Stage
The old Super Eight is gone. In its place sits a Super 10, split into two round robin groups of five. Ten sides now compete for a spot in the semi finals, rather than eight.
Eliminators Before the Semi Finals
Group winners from the Super 10 advance to the semifinals. To begin with, the second and third placed sides from opposite groups then meet in eliminator matches. On the whole, deciding who fills the final two spots.
Here is how the new ICC format stage compares to the old one:
- The tournament remains a twenty team event for 2028.
- Groups shrink from five teams to four, spread across five pools.
- Group matches fall from forty fixtures to thirty.
- The second stage grows from eight teams to ten.
- Two Eliminator matches now sit between the groups and the semi finals.
Getting Around the World Cup Qualification T20&ODI Pathways
World Cup qualification T20 and ODI routes have shifted, pretty much right alongside the new ICC formats themselves. Twelve sides have already locked in their 2028 T20 spots based on their current year results and the standings right now, so most of the field is sort of settled well ahead of time.
Scotland moves straight into the Europe Regional Final, mostly because of how things went around their run in the 2026 event. The rest of the sides that showed up in 2026 but did not grab automatic qualification head into the Global Qualifier too. That includes outfits that qualify via regional rounds across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas, and the East Asia Pacific region.
On the ODI side, the opening series adds real weight to qualification. A side that scrapes into the fourteen team field as a low seed can now be eliminated before the group stage proper has even started, which raises the cost of a poor qualifying run.
Why These Changes Matter for Fans and Players
Fewer dead fixtures is the headline benefit here. Under the old ODI and T20 structures, teams could secure a semi final spot with matches still left to compete, leaving little on the line for anyone watching. The new ICC formats close that gap by keeping more sides fighting for places deeper into each tournament.
There is a commercial logic too. With more sides carrying real hopes into the later rounds, the chance of marquee, high profile clashes between the sport’s biggest rivals surviving all the way to a knockout stage goes up rather than down. At Winclash, we believe that rewards squads built for consistency over a long tournament, not just a strong start.
Apart from the new ICC format, players face a different set of demands as well. Depth now matters more than ever, since a squad has to get through an extra stage before the matches that decide medals even begin. Rotation, fitness and bench strength all carry more weight under a new ICC format this long.
As the build up to these revamped tournaments gets underway, keeping track of every fixture becomes part of the routine. Our Cricket Live Score dashboard carries live scores, wicket alerts along with match updates as they happen.
A New Era of International Cricket
The new ICC formats reshape both flagship events from the ground up. Indeed, by adding teams, adding stages, and introducing cut matches that used to feel like they meant basically nothing late in a group.
Squad depth, qualifying form, and perhaps even whether you can deal with an extra knockout round will all matter a lot more from 2027 and also through 2028 onward. As both competitions develop over the upcoming seasons, keep a watch on Winclash.