ICC has announced major changes regarding the ODI World Cup 2027 to be held in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. This World Cup, to be held after about one and a quarter years, will now be held in a completely new format, which has never been seen before. ICC announced this on Wednesday 15 July. The World Cup has been retained as a tournament of 14 teams but due to the new format, only 12 teams will participate in the main round. Apart from this, for the first time ‘Super-7’ round will be played, which will decide the semi-finals.
There was a lot of discussion in the last few days regarding the format of the Men’s ODI World Cup to be held in October-November 2027. Earlier this tournament was expected to be played in the format of two groups of 7 teams each, then Super-6 round, then semi-finals and final. The 2003 World Cup was also played in the same format, in which 14 teams participated. But ICC has now changed it and for the first time ‘Super Series’ and ‘Super-7’ rounds are being introduced in the tournament.
Recently, a report claimed that the ICC is considering shortening next year’s World Cup and organizing it with 12 teams instead of 14. It was claimed that a decision on this would be taken at the ICC Annual General Meeting (ICC AGM) in Edinburgh. This meeting was held last weekend and the decision taken in it matches the claim of the report to some extent. ICC has retained the number of teams at 14, but under the new format only 12 teams will be included in the main round. That means 2 teams will be eliminated before the start of the group stage, due to which this will remain a 12-team tournament only.
(This is breaking news, it is being updated)
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