The ICC announced a changed format for the 2027 ODI World Cup, but it has come under severe criticism.
What is the new ODI World Cup format?
What ICC called an ‘evolved competition format’ for next year’s World Cup in their press release, the bottom three of the 14 teams that qualify for the World Cup will face off in a round-robin ‘super series’ and the team placed at the top of the table will then move to ‘round two’, which is effectively the group stage.
The 12 teams here will be divided into two groups of six, 30 matches will be played across the two groups, following which the top three sides from each group will move to the Super 7 round, where teams will face each other in a round-robin format. The seventh team in the Super 7 round will be the best fourth-placed team from the two groups. The top-four teams at the end of the Super 7 round will then qualify for the semi-finals.
How does it limit Associate teams' exposure?
As per the existing qualifying route, the top eight teams in the ICC men’s ODI rankings, plus co-hosts South Africa and Zimbabwe, will qualify directly for the World Cup, taking up 10 of the 14 spots. The remaining four spots will be filled up through the Cricket World Cup qualifiers, where two lowest-ranked full-member sides will also be in contention.
"An utterly deranged format"
So effectively, the new format has limited the exposure that Associate teams, who will likely take spots 12 to 14, will get at the next ODI World Cup. “The ODI World Cup has been cut to 12 teams with a ridiculous play-in tri-series tacked on and an utterly deranged format. A travesty,” journalist Bertus de Jong, who first reported the story, wrote on X.
English journalist Matt Roller pointed out that the new format looked “very much like a way of cutting a 14-team World Cup to 12 teams by stealth,” while Wisden.com’s Ben Gardner felt that while the Associates lose their share of exposure, it was also a way to “manufacture two (or more) India-Pakistan fixtures. A total mess.”
Notably, if India and Pakistan are drawn into the same group at the World Cup, they will likely face off again in the Super 7 round if things go to plan for both sides, where if they finish in the top four, there’s the possibility of them facing off in the semi-finals or the final as well.
Wisden.com's Abhishek Mukherjee wondered what was the need to complicate the format, "and to do whatever it takes to humiliate the Associates. They are qualifying for the World Cup, so why do they have to qualify again?"
"Cricket fans, the ICC are laughing at your face," wrote X user @_hypocaust, a foremost expert of the women's game. "Whoever thought up this World Cup format ... must have been Super high," added journalist Peter Della Penna.
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